TRIMEDX President of Cybersecurity and Chief Technology Officer Doug Folsom and President of Clinical Engineering Kristi McDermott were recently featured in MD+DI discussing trends and predictions ahead in the industry for the coming year.
Here are the trends, challenges, and opportunities we expect to see in medical device manufacturing and healthcare in 2022. For our look ahead at medtech in 2022, we’ve gathered some insights from across the medical device and healthcare industries. Read on for perspectives about 2021 and expectations for 2022, and please feel free to offer your own in the comments.
The need for cybersecurity heightens
There are risks as more and more connected devices come to market. “A Deloitte study expects that connected devices in health care systems will grow to 60-70% over the next five years. Devices that are retired will be replaced with newer, connected ones. As the number of connected devices grows, so too will the disruptions to patient safety,” Doug Folsom, president, cybersecurity and chief technology officer, TRIMEDX, told MD+DI. “The danger of device hacks in causing the inability to treat patients is a growing risk, and one that cannot be overlooked. In 2022, there must be a real effort from healthcare systems to strengthen their network security through robust cybersecurity efforts.”
Healthcare systems will need help to minimize all these risks. “The best solution is for hospitals and healthcare systems to implement a comprehensive cybersecurity solution that not only scans their network for vulnerabilities but also integrates with their central maintenance management system and ties all that data together, so they can best protect medical devices used for patient care,” explains Kristi McDermott, president, clinical engineering at TRIMEDX. “In 2022, I believe having a comprehensive cybersecurity solution along with trained, professional clinical engineering leadership with trained technicians in that space are going to be required to protect the core mission of a healthcare system.”