Artificial intelligence continues to be an overarching topic across life sciences and healthcare. Excitement about recent developments in automation and AI was on display at the Health Information Management Systems Society Global Health Conference and Exhibition (HIMSS 2024) held earlier this month. However, as the conference began, the late February cyberattack that affected Change Healthcare, a subsidiary of United Healthcare, was still disrupting health care nationwide, and HHS' Office for Civil Rights (OCR) was conducting an investigation. Discussions at HIMSS 2024 touched on known challenges of AI, such as data bias, but focused on possible solutions to support the continued advancement of the technology.
It's about the impact on certain medical treatments.
The overarching theme throughout the conference was expanding the reach of health services to those who need access most. Technology presents significant opportunities to provide health care to underrepresented populations around the world. Keller Rinaudo Clifton, co-founder and CEO of Zipline, said: biospace About future possibilities. “Today, more than 7 billion people have poor or no access to health care, and there are many opportunities to apply technology to expand access to these populations.”
Clifton continued by quoting Mark Harrison, former CEO of Intermountain Health. it's not. It is a necessity for the underprivileged. ”
In his keynote address, Clifton talked about how ziplines serve underprivileged populations while reducing their climate impact by using an all-electronic solution to reach communities. shared. Zipline uses all-electric, zero-emissions aircraft for long- and short-range drone deliveries. Rwanda's first drone-operated zip line has reduced postpartum hemorrhage by 51%. Zipline received approval from the Federal Aviation Administration to begin deliveries in the United States in 2022. When Zipline was asked about the possibility of using drones to increase patient engagement and retention in decentralized clinical trials, a representative said the company would consider collaborating with clinical trial sponsors in the future. He said that
The keynote speech is just one example of this theme at the conference. Representatives from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) discussed how they are reviewing and expanding data collection, reporting, and analysis to reduce disparities. During the session, CMS representatives also discussed the agency's internal evaluation of CMS policies and procedures. Highlighted in this session was CMS' continued support for his Gender Harmony project, which seeks to consistently capture sex and gender data within health models. CMS demonstrated how the organization is working to strengthen health information exchange standards to ensure gender diversity is appropriately represented to improve care for all individuals.
5 hours and 200 days
At a forum session on AI and Cybersecurity, Benoît Desjardins, a professor of radiology and medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, said hackers typically have access to data within five hours of a breach, making cyberattacks easier and faster. He pointed out that it has become. In contrast, the average time to discover a breach is 200 days later. There is too much data to parse and too many attacks to work.
All you need is Bitcoin, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) Deputy Director Nitin Natarajan pointed out during a lunch session. You don't have to be a cybercrime mastermind. A third party does the work on behalf of the cybercriminals, keeps a cut of the profits, and is usually paid through Bitcoin.
That being said, the victim's situation has also changed. From a cybersecurity perspective, CISA deals with anything that doesn't belong to the Department of Defense (DOD) or the intelligence community. When Natarajan first joined his CISA, people didn't believe healthcare needed cybersecurity. At that time, everything related to medicine was protected. Natarajan said attacks are occurring in all areas of healthcare, from hospitals to biotech, pharmaceuticals, manufacturing and supply chains.
CISA focuses on the entire healthcare sector, including healthcare and life sciences. Healthcare cannot be delivered without IT communications, transportation, and supply chains. That's not all. Healthcare cannot be provided without pharmaceutical manufacturing, distribution, biotechnology, pharmaceutical clinical trials, and laboratory services. Cybersecurity in every aspect of healthcare, from drug discovery to the transportation of raw materials to the delivery of medicines to patients, is a key part of the discussion for CISA.
Introducing Quantum
Simply put, quantum computing exploits leverage and entanglement to solve problems that are difficult for classical computers to solve. It's still in its early stages. But the life sciences industry, like other industries, is developing, with Google and IBM announcing roadmaps that include 1 million qubit systems by 2029-2030. GlaxoSmithKline is also testing both IBM's gate-based quantum computer and D-Wave. Quantum annealing to solve codon optimization problems in drug discovery processes. Quantum provides exciting opportunities throughout the drug discovery and development process.
However, hackers can also benefit from quantum computing. As the dawn of quantum accelerates, addressing the risks associated with quantum becomes increasingly urgent. Quantum computers will be able to break through some of the world's most widely used security protocols. The immediate concerns are so great that the National Security Agency (NSA), the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) jointly published a Cybersecurity Information Sheet (CSI) titled “Quantum Response: Announced “Transition to Post.'' -Quantum cryptography. ” Because the post-quantum encryption mitigation process is extensive and necessary to prevent compromise of critical data and systems, the CSI Sheet provides a guiding roadmap for organizations to use in their preparation.
talk to biospace, Lee Kim, senior principal of privacy and cybersecurity at HIMSS, suggests that organizations use a risk-based approach to assess their own readiness for quantum computing as well as review vendors. As a result, the CSI sheet has been expanded. Recognizing that organizations are at various stages of readiness, the CTO and her CISO should carefully evaluate how to work with vendors.
“One thing to do is to first plan the critical aspects that are most important to your organization. The second thing to do is to ask your vendors, 'What are you doing?' . And his third is to assess what is going on internally to convert important aspects into quantum. ”
She suggests repeating this process for key priorities in Layer 2 and Layer 3, but testing elements of the first priority before creating a roadmap for adapting to quantum. must be verified.
AI never sleeps
The healthcare sector is still adapting to AI, becoming more familiar with different areas and the tools that work best. Additionally, the field is still discovering limitations within the data and grappling with the most concerning bias: human bias.
And now, with quantum on the horizon, AI may ultimately be the answer to quantum challenges, especially when it comes to data. Hal Wolf, President and CEO of the Healthcare Information and Management System Society, expressed his enthusiasm for the future. “Quantum and AI will be fun to watch the two work together, but at even faster speeds. One of the things I learned in operations a long time ago is that updates It’s all about speed.”
To explain further, biospace, he makes a good point about their cooperation. “Two things are happening in conjunction. At the same time, we're ingesting quantum data at a very fast pace, which is really important, especially when you're getting layer 3, clinical decision support, etc. We use AI to check whether the data is correct, whether there are any mistakes, and the bad guys attacked it at the same time.'' From a drug development perspective, that alone is interesting, but cybersecurity From this perspective, the benefits of AI are evident.
The cybersecurity session suggested that AI quantum systems are the way of the future. Training AI requires a lot of computational power, but when properly trained, it can identify breaches and attacks in seconds and empower your team. And as the relationship between quantum and AI develops, quantum provides an opportunity to reduce training time for AI, allowing systems to perform tasks much faster.
Lori Ellis is the next Director of Insights. biospace. She analyzes and comments on industry trends. biospace And the client. She currently focuses on the impact of evolving technology on the pharmaceutical industry. She can be reached at the following address: lori.ellis@biospace.com.follow her her linkedin.
