What a wonderful month of March in the sunny state of Florida! In between the sunshine and fun events, I attended two unique conferences that brought healthcare and industry leaders together to find solutions to complex problems. While problems never cease, it does matter how we respond to the issues we are currently facing. Assembling in person to discuss solutions, socialize, and make connections is one step to addressing the complex world we all live in today.
I am so proud of the whole Medigate team for pulling off a unique feat. The team delivered two exceptional conference events in back-to-back weeks! The conversations with old friends and potential customers were invaluable and will guide my thinking about healthcare solutions in this next phase of Medigate, now Claroty.
Each conference was exceptional in its own ways:
VIVE focused on collaboration around big ideas to move healthcare forward. There were a lot of beautiful presentations around emerging technology, and the presenters were candid about the projects their organization worked on. CHIME & HLTH put on a great conference, and I enjoyed the mix of leading partners and up-and-coming start-ups in the exhibit hall!
HIMSS did a great job bringing a wide swath of healthcare professionals together. The range of perspectives shared in the keynotes and the exhibit hall formed a great melting pot of ideas, some of which I think can move the healthcare industry forward.
I noticed some key themes at these conferences, and I wanted to highlight a few of them here.
Many healthcare systems have achieved visibility to their connected medical devices. Now, they are asking hard questions around their next steps. They are looking for tools that take them beyond visibility and into tangible risk reduction automation. This approach requires novel ways of leveraging the visibility data to take action. I am personally very excited to see the unique ways our customers are using the device data to impact their operations. Their creative approach to the large problems they are tackling is inspiring!
Operational Technology security is becoming more critical. As clinical devices are being secured, a new frontier is emerging. Gaining accurate visibility into building management systems (BMS) and other critical infrastructure is the first step to securing those threat vectors. This security issue (BMS visibility and actionability) is a topic that is becoming more of a priority for healthcare systems, and many CISOs are being chartered with sorting it out.
CIOs are faced with a staffing challenge and are increasingly curious about how to leverage security technologies to drive collaboration within their teams. While there is no silver bullet for security or for staff engagement, retention, or recruiting, using cutting-edge tools to make individual workers more effective is a growing trend. As the staffing crisis peaks, more organizations are being brought under the CIO leadership sphere, with BioMed and Clinical Engineering being new additions to some organizations. Tools that benefit all groups in IT, Security, and now BioMed is top of mind for healthcare leaders.
In the end, I walked away from these two conferences very proud to work with healthcare organizations worldwide. Our commitment as Medigate, now a part of Claroty, is to remain deeply committed to this vital sector. We look forward to standing shoulder to shoulder with our existing and future clients to advance cybersecurity for all connected devices.
