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UPS Successfully Completes Acquisition of MNX Global Logistics, Enhancing Time-Critical Healthcare Services

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Global Logistics, Global Trade Daily, News

UPS Successfully Completes Acquisition of MNX Global Logistics, Enhancing Time-Critical Healthcare Services

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UPS (NYSE: UPS) has officially wrapped up its acquisition of MNX Global Logistics (MNX), a renowned global provider of time-critical logistics. The acquisition, which received all necessary regulatory approvals, was finalized on November 2, 2023.

This strategic move to bring MNX under the UPS umbrella aims to bolster the company’s capabilities in time-critical logistics, with a particular focus on serving healthcare customers across the United States, Europe, and Asia. MNX is highly regarded for its consistent and punctual delivery of critical goods, and it has a well-established reputation for transporting radiopharmaceuticals and temperature-sensitive products. This expertise will play a pivotal role in aiding UPS Healthcare and its clinical trial logistics subsidiary, Marken, in meeting the ever-growing demand for these specialized services within the healthcare sector.

With the added knowledge and proficiency from MNX, UPS is poised to maintain its position as an industry leader in delivering global services to customers who require time-critical and temperature-sensitive logistics solutions. This acquisition underscores UPS’s ongoing commitment to invest in cutting-edge technologies and capabilities, ultimately ensuring that customers receive the most dependable and efficient logistics solutions available.

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Global Logistics, Global Trade Daily

The Role of Supply Chain Management in Improving Access to Healthcare

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Today, the healthcare industry faces many obstacles to providing fair and impartial access to medical provisions and assets. The management of supply chains plays a pivotal part in ensuring that essential medical supplies, devices, and medications reach those requiring them the most, irrespective of their geographical location.

By effectively implementing strategies for supply chain management, medical practitioners can enhance the accessibility and affordability of healthcare goods, no matter where they are situated.

The Importance of the Supply Chain Management in Healthcare

The efficiency of our healthcare system depends mainly on the effectiveness of its supply chain management. By creating strategic and well-planned supply chain networks, medical providers can lower costs, limit waste, and enhance the availability of crucial medical products.

Below are some of the benefits that an effective supply chain management system can bring to healthcare providers:

Improved Patient Outcomes

An indispensable benefit of implementing supply chain management in healthcare is the improvement of patient outcomes. A streamlined management approach guarantees that healthcare providers always have sufficient crucial medical devices, drugs, and supplies necessary for optimal care. 

This continuous availability of medical resources ensures that patients receive prompt and effective treatments, leading to better outcomes.

Cost Reduction

Well-executed supply chain management has the potential to decrease healthcare expenditures significantly. By effectively managing the supply chain, medical professionals can eradicate the need to stock a surplus of medical supplies to meet patients’ needs. This greener approach reduces waste and, ultimately, lowers healthcare costs.

Improved Efficiency

Efficient supply chain management is pivotal to improving efficiency in healthcare organizations. This helps ensure that medical supplies are always accessible when required, giving healthcare providers ample time to focus on providing top-notch patient care. 

Moreover, a well-functioning supply chain reduces the wait times for various medical services, improving patient satisfaction significantly.

Compliance and Regulations

Healthcare organizations are pressured to comply with increasingly stringent regulations and legislation. Effective supply chain management enables healthcare providers to comply with regulations. 

It helps them track the precise location of their medical supplies, monitor inventory levels, ensure that medical supplies are not expired, and manage supply shortages and recalls.

Distribution and Delivery Management

Effective supply chain management also ensures that medical supplies are effectively distributed within the healthcare facility. This management reduces the potential for mix-ups that could lead to misdiagnosis, the wrong dosage of medicine, or operating on incorrect surgical procedures. It also allows for secure handling, storage, and transportation procedures.

How Does a Healthcare Supply Chain Work?

The healthcare supply chain starts with identifying the resource needs of healthcare facilities. This can include anything from medical devices, pharmaceuticals, and surgical supplies, to linen and patient gowns. 

Once the needs have been identified, the next step is to source vendors and distributors that meet the facility’s quantity, quality, and timing requirements. This process involves negotiating contracts, assessing vendor or distributor capabilities and reliability, and managing supplier relationships.

Once suppliers have been identified, the healthcare supply chain focuses on coordinating the shipment of goods. This means managing the transportation and logistics of all the equipment and supplies from the vendors or distributors to the medical facility. 

In addition, the healthcare supply chain also aims to optimize the delivery process to ensure that goods are delivered on time and in good condition.

One critical aspect of the healthcare supply chain is maintaining regulatory compliance standards. Medical facilities must adhere to strict regulations around supply chain management to ensure the safety and efficacy of medical equipment and medications. 

This can include providing proper storage, tracking the expiration dates of drugs, and verifying compliance with environmental sustainability standards.

Recent Challenges in Healthcare Supply Chains

The healthcare sector has faced numerous challenges in recent years, significantly impacting supply chain management. Below are some of the biggest challenges:

Supply Shortages

Healthcare supply chains face a pressing challenge: the scarcity of vital medical supplies, equipment, and medications. This issue is further compounded by global occurrences like pandemics, geopolitical tensions, and natural disasters, which disrupt manufacturing and distribution processes. 

The negative impact of supply shortages on patient care is profound, especially on those who depend on life-saving treatments and drugs.

Longer Lead Times

Longer lead times have also become a significant concern in healthcare supply chains, resulting from increased demand, production bottlenecks, and logistical disruptions. Extended lead times can hinder healthcare providers’ ability to maintain adequate inventory levels, potentially causing delays in treatment and negatively impacting patient outcomes.

Heavy Shipment Spending

With the growth of global trade and complexities in distribution networks, healthcare organizations are confronted with heavy shipment spending. In addition, factors such as fluctuating fuel prices, transportation capacity constraints, and compliance with international regulations also contribute to increased shipping costs. 

These added expenses can strain healthcare budgets, ultimately affecting the affordability of care for patients.

Lack of Visibility Across Complex Distribution Networks

Healthcare supply chains often involve multiple stakeholders and span various geographical locations, making maintaining visibility throughout the entire process challenging. This lack of transparency can lead to inefficiencies, increased risk of errors, and reverse logistics issues, particularly regarding product recalls. 

In addition, inadequate visibility into the supply chain can impede the ability to make informed, data-driven decisions and hinder collaboration among different parties involved.

How Healthcare Supply Chains Can Improve Their Efficiency

To ensure the safety and efficacy of medical equipment and medications, healthcare supply chains need to be optimized. Here are some of the most effective ways that organizations can improve their efficiency:

Adopt a Patient-First Mindset

The first step in improving efficiency in healthcare supply chains is to adopt a patient-first mindset. By putting patients at the center of your supply chain management, you can ensure that all inventory, equipment, and materials are available when and where needed. 

Accurate forecasting, inventory tracking, and demand planning are critical. By managing all aspects of the supply chain with the patient in mind, you can better manage inventory and delivery schedules, reducing delays and wait times for critical materials.

Use Automation and Advanced Inventory Tracking

Advanced inventory-tracking technologies and automated systems could help increase efficiency in healthcare supply chains. Automation can streamline processes, improve inventory management accuracy, and reduce human errors. 

Keeping track of all supplies through an advanced inventory management system simplifies the methods of obtaining and restocking vital products, making them both more accessible and more accurate.

Prioritize Forecasting and Demand Planning

Forecasting and demand planning are vital in ensuring that all the necessary materials are available when needed. This involves understanding current and future trends and developing accurate estimates of demand. 

By forecasting and demand planning, the supply chain can be adjusted to meet the healthcare facility’s needs. This can reduce supply chain lag time, saving time and money to lessen the burden on the healthcare provider.

Establish End-to-End Security Protocols

Due to frequent cyber-attacks, the healthcare industry needs to prioritize developing complete security protocols for its technologies and systems. This includes implementing security measures across all equipment, technology, and data to safeguard patient confidentiality and prevent theft and tampering. 

In addition, maintaining a secure supply chain is crucial for the effectiveness and security of the healthcare supply chain network.

Keeping Our Healthcare Supply Chains Efficient Long-Term

To maintain efficient healthcare supply chains in the long term, staying up-to-date on industry trends and technological advancements is critical.

By employing a patient-centric approach and implementing supply chain optimization strategies, healthcare organizations can guarantee that their supply chains are operating at peak efficiency now and in the future.

Author Bio

David is CEO of DB Schenker North America, a 150 year old leading global freight forwarder and 3PL provider. David Buss is responsible for all P&L aspects in the North America region, which is made up of over 7,000 employees located throughout 39 forwarding locations and 55 logistics centers.

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Archives, Global Logistics, Global Trade Daily

Ways to Enhance Healthcare Supply Chain Management

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Supply Chain Management (SCM) is needed in an established product manufacturing industry. It entails the sourcing, procurement, moving & storage of products at different stages from the source to the final destination. This covers raw material inputs, work-in-process assemblies & finished products inventory.

Supply Chain Management in Healthcare

SCM within the healthcare scope expands to include not just the end-to-end supply procedure encompassing 

  • Medical consumables
  • Medication
  • Allied services 
  • Capex equipment

But it also includes the part of human life and care, with responsibility right until a patient has consumed a drug or availed a health-related hospital service/procedure.

All these make SCM intricate. These complexities make robust processes and advanced analytics compulsory among general practitioners within the healthcare supply chain. This is to ensure that suitable quality materials continue to be made available at the right cost and quantity and at the appropriate time.

The availability of quality materials is what makes you get the best treatment and care in a doctor’s office. Your primary care doctor can serve you better and help you recoup when they have been well equipped.

However, inefficiencies often crop up among general care physicians. This is because of the outsourcing of ability to logistics service providers without proper control. There is cross-border nature of various products and complex rules that are not adequately understood. 

Although some are aware of the top ways to enhance the entire management process by solving the problems, some still have no idea how to go about it. Well, if you have no clue how to do this as a primary care doctor, you are in the right place.

What is Healthcare Supply Chain Management?

Healthcare supply chain management refers to the monitoring and management of the movement of medicines, medical equipment, and healthcare services from the producer, to the primary health doctor, to the patients. 

It helps ensure that general healthcare practitioners and patients get the prescriptions and treatments they need when and where they need them. Supply chain management in hospitals is essential because it improves efficiency and productivity. 

Top 5 Ways to Enhance Healthcare Supply Chain Management

When general care practitioners have all the necessary equipment and services, they offer healthier patient care. Supply chain management also minimizes wastage in an organization. It achieves this by ordering a limited inventory, preventing medical supplies from expiring in storage. 

Hence, to effectively enhance this management in your healthcare facility as a primary care doctor, here are the five best ways to go about it.

1. Effective Inventory Management

 As a primary care doctor, you lose income, affecting your profit margins when materials expire because your health facility cannot use them. This is why it’s vital to effectively and efficiently manage the inventory process.

Consider implementing a consistent equipment management system to control inventory levels. Ensure that you are ordering the correct volumes of materials. Materials ordered should match the amount your staff uses without risking your patients’ well-being. These supplies should get to the appropriate departments at the right time when needed.

Simultaneously, keep low inventory levels to avoid excess supplies gathering in the storage area. Low inventory has an optimistic effect on your bottom line, and its outcome is indisputable. Inventories can only remain good if providers and suppliers work together to ensure medical products or equipment are used before it expires.

This means that staff handling the medical delivery process must team up with the supply associates. Thus, costs can considerably decrease. There’ll be supply chain management enhancement if everyone can work seriously on inventory management.

2. Effective Pricing System

For smooth functioning, the hospital management must understand the costs of employing an effective pricing system. Make use of cost-accounting systems to get ample information regarding the actual and incremental expenses related to a particular service. 

Other accounting techniques to help your pricing system include the medicare cost allocation and charge-to-cost ratio. A hospital pricing system needs planning. It’s best to know the cost-to-charge relationship at the process level. Ensure to capture, check, and manage information on labor, supplies, and other operating costs as often as possible.

After gathering the data, classify it into standard groups for benchmarking and additional evaluation. Examine when cost patterns are falling outside the standard and gauge internally and externally.

It’s also advisable to check your competitors’ prices and compare them with your facility’s prices. You can get this by analyzing available public and commercial databases. Some states in the United States offer data sets that allow health services to benchmark with competitors.

Overall, consider investing in equipment that offers you insights into pricing, cost-lessening opportunities, and how to generate more value. This ultimately helps in enhancing your supply chain management.

3. Establish Metrics to Track and Measure Results

Ensure your supply chain management initiatives entail the tools you need to trace and estimate results over a certain period of time. This will review the use and selection of products. Monitor compliance with conventional protocols to check if they are performing to expectation.

This proactive technique will help determine if there is a need for changes and where you can make amendments for further improvement. Determine the metrics you want to apply. You don’t have to use every benchmark at your disposal. Begin with just some key measurements and increase them as the enhancement process grows.

Using an expert distributor who specializes in the logistics of medical equipment acquisition and delivery to healthcare facilities can help you actualize many of these roles effectively.

4. Develop a Strategic Sourcing Approach

Your hospital can get significant value as a general practitioner by assuming a well-thought-out tactic sourcing approach. First, define the purchasing responsibilities within your purchasing sector. 

Before now, the purchasing section was only in charge of handling resources and consumables. But its responsibilities have widened over the years. Nowadays, the sector manages purchased services, IT, and even service contracts.

Outline the roles your group purchasing organization (GPO) should take and know any established local agreements. Examine the flexibility level you want your organization to have concerning GPO conformity.

Nevertheless, your flexibility decision with GPO compliance doesn’t have to be urgent, as it may take a while to understand the trends. If you need assistance, a third party can offer beneficial perceptions.

5. Commitment and Team Building

Before embarking on any project, ensure you have tremendous efficiency in supply chain management to make the process all-time moving. In addition, ensure that the project team comprises delegates of all stakeholders.

This includes primary health physicians, nurses, healthcare departments, material managers, and other staff. This is to enhance support for any price changes and cost-saving ideas you implement.

As a result, you must be extra careful about quality changes and initiatives. Also, general practitioners must ensure that there is no unprofessional conduct in the ordering process, data collection, and other healthcare supply chain procedures.

Conclusion

Enhancing healthcare supply chain management is a bit complex, especially when extensive facilities follow the latest practices rapidly. However, the ways highlighted above are great tactics that can work incredibly for you.

This makes you relevant when people are seeking solutions to health issues. The only thing is your “persistence.” Despite that delivery of medical supplies come under urgency and emergency, not delaying commitments and working on standardizing inventory practices is vital.

Overall, if all these measures can be taken care of by primary care doctors, without a doubt, healthcare supply chain experts would be able to withstand any storm that comes their way.

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Archives, Global Trade Daily, News

COVID-19 Detection Kits Market Size Sees 17.3% Growth to Hit USD 8 Billion By 2026

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The global COVID-19 detection kits market should increase from USD 3.3 billion till now in 2020 to USD 8 billion in 2026 at a compound annual growth rate of 17.3% for 2020-2026.

COVID-19 detection kits market is anticipated to garner noteworthy growth on account of growing cases of coronavirus registered worldwide. For the record, COVID-19 is a respiratory infection that is highly contagious and transmits through direct contact with an infected person or indirect contact with affected surfaces located near the immediate environment.

As of now, this virus has spread all over the world. Containing its spread has proven to be challenging for most developed as well as developing countries. In a bid to curb the spread of coronavirus, numerous countries are using COVID-19 detection kits that help identify the symptoms of the disease in early-stage patients.

Countries with a huge number of COVID-19 cases are currently going through grave public health problems. As a result, regulatory bodies like the U.S. FDA have decided to ease the regulatory process for COVID-19 detection kits, following the Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) guideline. This has enabled manufacturers to launch their test kits in the market more quickly.

Technological innovation and subsequent development in the field of coronavirus diagnostic kits will enhance the COVID-19 detection kits industry outlook. According to a study conducted by Global Market Insights, Inc., the COVID-19 detection kits market is estimated to reach USD 8 billion by the year 2026.

This growth can be contributed to the below-mentioned trends:

Immense popularity of RT-PCR assay kits-

Rising incidence of COVID-19 around the world could play a crucial role in driving the demand for RT-PCR assay kits. The segment is expected to be more profitable and might achieve 96% of the overall market share within 2020.

As per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), nearly 0.6 million positive COVID-19 cases have been reported up to this date in the U.S. Rising cases in the region may support the demand for RT-PCR assay kits. Other alternatives for RT-PCR assay kits include immunoassay test strips/cassettes.

Escalating demand across APAC-

The outbreak of COVID-19 in densely populated areas like India and China could augment the Asia Pacific COVID-19 detection kits industry over the years. Estimates claim that the regional market is likely to observe nearly 21% CAGR by 2026.

Facilities in APAC have recorded some recurrence cases of COVID-19 after the successful containment of the virus. This could develop the need for COVID-19 detection kits in the future.

Implementation of lucrative business strategies-

Companies operating in the market are implementing multiple growth strategies to expand their product portfolio and geographical presence by taking part in novel R&D initiatives.

Taking March 2020 for instance, Hologic revealed that it will be receiving grant funding from the U.S. government’s Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) to scale the production of COVID-19 detection kits. This collaboration would allow the firm to cater to the proliferating demand for detection kits.

Apart from Hologic, Co-Diagnostics, Cepheid, Abbott Laboratories, BGI, F. Hoffmann-La Roche, BioFire Diagnostics, Guangzhou Wondfo Biotech, GenMark Diagnostics, Qiagen, Quidel Corporation, and Mylab Discovery Solutions are some other leading firms in the COVID-19 detection kits market.

Source: Global Market Insights, Inc.

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Archives, Global Trade Daily, Special Reports, Stories

DEVELOPED COUNTRIES ARE THE LARGEST IMPORTERS OF HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONALS

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Living Longer

Personal and home health aides, registered nurses, and medical and nursing assistants are among the fastest growing occupations in the United States. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects 1.2 million new personal and home health aide positions – and the need for another 372,000 registered nurses – by 2028. Due to the shortage of qualified healthcare workers, immigrants held 15 percent of all registered nursing positions in the United States in 2016. On April 22, President Trump signed an Executive Order to pause immigration due to COVID-19, but exempted physicians and nurses.

This is not uncommon in developed countries with a growing aging population who are living longer. About eight percent of nurses in Canada are foreign-trained, 15 percent in the UK, 19 percent in Switzerland and 27 percent in New Zealand. The numbers are higher for foreign-trained doctors: 24 percent in Canada, 28 percent in the UK, 27 percent in Switzerland and 42 percent in New Zealand.

Training for Export

India has the world’s highest number of medical schools and is the world’s largest source of immigrant physicians. An estimated 69,000 Indian-trained physicians worked in the United States, UK, Canada and Australia in 2017, according to the OECD. India is second only to the Philippines in training nurses. Nearly 56,000 Indian-trained nurses work in those same four countries, equal to about three percent of total registered nurses in India.

The Philippines has an established international nursing training program and is the largest exporter of nurses globally – accounting for roughly 25 percent of all overseas nurses worldwide. About 85 percent of employed Filipino nurses work in one of more than 50 countries around the world. In the United States, an estimated 20 percent all the registered nurses in California are Filipino. It’s a strong professional cadre. The Philippine Nursing Association of America represents over 145,000 Filipino nurses and has its own theme song.

% foreign trained nurses and docs in OECD

The “Brain Drain” Concern

Health care professionals migrate for many reasons: continuing education, better pay, the opportunity to send remittances to their families and home nation, the prestige of practicing in another country, and others. Filipino nurses in the United States earn 15 times more than those working in the Philippines. Filipino nurses working abroad remit about $1 billion to the Philippines every year, a substantial portion of total remittances which drives 13 percent of the Philippines’ GDP.

International mobility of health workers is accelerating. The number of migrant doctors and nurses working within OECD countries increased by 60 percent over the last decade, along with significant increases in intraregional mobility and migration of healthcare workers among developing countries.

Public health groups including the World Health Organization (WHO) are concerned that health care immigration reduces the number of professional health workers available to serve their home countries. Developing countries are often especially in need of more personnel. Declaring 2020 the Year of the Nurse and Midwife, WHO says 18 million more health care providers are needed worldwide to achieve universal health coverage by 2030. To address the “brain drain” concern, WHO developed a voluntary Global Code that promotes adequate staffing of national health systems and “ethical international recruitment of health personnel”.

Mobility and “Ethical Recruitment”

In a 2019 joint study, the WHO and World Trade Organization (WTO) examined the relationship between free trade agreements that improve health worker mobility and the recruitment goals of the Code. The study primarily reviewed so-called “Mode 4” commitments that deal with the temporary presence of foreign natural persons supplying trade in health-related services.

Commitments have been made by 139 WTO members to liberalize trade in services. Of those, 69 members have taken at least one commitment relating to the provision of health services, from hospital care to midwife services. The commitments vary widely, enabling education and skills exchanges, investment, mobility for charitable purposes, and the protection of health worker welfare.

As an example, the Indonesia–Japan Economic Partnership Agreement includes development assistance by Japan’s International Cooperation Agency to support nursing education in Indonesia. In 2019, Japan updated its Economic Partnership Agreements with Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam to extend the period of time a nursing candidate can stay in Japan to obtain national nursing qualifications and healthcare worker certifications.

The joint WHO-WTO study makes no real conclusion about the compatibility of the Code with greater mobility through trade agreements. It suggests that further analysis such as economic needs tests or labor market tests could help sending and receiving countries understand the impact of healthcare worker service exports on sustainable development.

call out on HC worker impact (1)

COVID-19 is Shifting the Global Healthcare Trade Landscape

COVID-19 may be accelerating two key trends in healthcare work, while at the same time reversing (perhaps temporarily) the trend of job growth by inducing layoffs in the industry.

Telemedicine:

Encompassing remote patient assessment and monitoring as well as health education, the global telemedicine market was projected to grow from $70 billion in 2020 to $266.8 billion by 2026. COVID-19 is accelerating the trend. In March, the U.S. government announced it would temporarily pay clinicians to provide telehealth services for Medicare beneficiaries and would expand the communications platforms that could be used.

Telemedicine has long been encouraged in developing countries, supported by international development agencies and non-government organizations. It can help overcome short-staffing limitations and provide support for local clinicians through overseas physicians who can confirm a diagnosis and collaborate on treatment plans as part of global trade in services.

Robotics:

Robotics are being deployed to decrease COVID-19 risks to frontline healthcare workers. A field hospital in Wuhan, China serving 20,000 patients was staffed by robots that monitored patients’ vital signs through smart bracelets and rings that synced with an AI platform. Other robots served food, drinks and medicine to patients, while other autonomous droids sprayed disinfectant and cleaned the floors. Other countries like South Korea and Lebanon are using robots to measure temperatures, distribute hand sanitizer and perform disinfecting services.

Layoffs and Mobility Restrictions:

COVID-19 is causing governments to retrench in some countries that export healthcare workers,. In March, the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) temporarily suspended the deployment of all health care workers “until the national state of emergency is lifted,” freezing the fulfillment of existing contracts with hospitals around the globe. Meanwhile, routine healthcare has been stymied due to ongoing stay-at-home directives, causing massive financial distress to the healthcare industry and significant layoffs.

In all of these ways, COVID-19 may be changing the outlook for cross-border global healthcare services for years to come.

_____________________________________________________________

Sarah Smiley is a strategic communications and policy expert with over 20 years in international trade and government affairs, working in the U.S. Government, private sector and international organizations.

This article originally appeared on TradeVistas.org. Republished with permission.

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Archives, Commentary

5 Ways For Healthcare Providers To Build A Fortress Against Cyber Threats

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The healthcare industry has yet to find a cure for cyberattacks. Housing personal health data, all kinds of providers are vulnerable targets of hackers and patient care can be put at great risk.

News of breaches in healthcare computer systems is a regular occurrence. Over 100,000 medical records were recently leaked as a result of a data breach at a Montana hospital. And research this year showed an upsurge in malware attacks on healthcare providers. Phishing messages, a means of malware delivery via email, have been found to come in the form of alerts from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

As cyberattacks become more sophisticated and widespread, the need for adequately securing computer networks at hospitals and all medical facilities has never been greater, says Alex Zlatin, CEO of Maxim Software Systems (alexzlatin.com).

“The costs of cyberattacks for healthcare providers can be enormous,” Zlatin says, “but how hackers can literally stop facilities from functioning and keep patients from getting care and medication should get everyone’s attention. “It’s all about prevention, and for many providers, being secure as possible will involve a retooling and re-thinking of how they approach cybersecurity from the human and technological standpoints.”

Zlatin provides five tips for healthcare providers to better protect against cybersecurity threats:

-Educate employees about phishing attacks. Many breaches start with human error. Employees make the mistake of responding to an email, link or website designed by hackers to access private information. “Email is a popular phishing technique,” Zlatin says. “The best ways to prevent them from doing damage are to educate your employees on what suspicious emails look like and to use strong email spam filters. Also, your software should automatically scan any links or attachments. This prevents new or unrecognizable URLs from sneaking past company safeguards.”

-Beware of ransomware. Ransomware has been a big menace to the healthcare industry, holding data for ransom, paralyzing facilities and putting patients at risk. Zlatin says the first step in dealing with ransomware is backing up your system, ideally with a cloud backup to protect data. “Failure to do backup can cause irreparable damage,” he says. “And while hackers continually find ways to infiltrate, your security software should contain the most updated anti-malware and anti-ransomware protection. When a ransomware attack occurs, the first thing employees should do is contact their IT team — not try to resolve it themselves.”

-Have a top-down security program. There can be a disconnect and gaps in cyber security procedures when a medical facility’s security staff and IT team don’t overlap. “Including cybersecurity duties at a managerial level, perhaps even as an executive position, can ensure that correct initiatives are created, launched, and enforced, and that funding for security initiatives is available,” Zlatin says. “This also helps enforce regular risk assessment, which should be part of any healthcare provider’s cybersecurity threat program.”

-Make sure vendors have protection. The Healthcare Industry Cybersecurity Task Force, which was established by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Homeland Security, warned providers about areas of security vulnerability in the supply chain. “Vendors should take the proper steps to detect threats,” Zlatin says. “They include all healthcare business partners, such as insurance companies and infrastructure providers, all of whom should have good security records and be able to protect medical information. It’s especially important for organizations that outsource IT personnel from third-party vendors.”

-Update passwords often. “Using the same passwords for most platforms is a big mistake,” Zlatin says. “It increases vulnerabilities. If a criminal discovers one password used for several accounts, it leads to a disastrous theft of data. So, have employees generate new passwords periodically and not get stuck on convenience.”

“Too often, many healthcare facilities aren’t vigilant enough about defending their medical records security,” Zlatin says. “Healthcare providers face a constant threat that requires constant vigilance because they and their patients have too much to lose.”

________________________________________________________________

Alex Zlatin, author of the book Responsible Dental Ownership (alexzlatin.com), had more than 10 years of management experience before he accepted the position of CEO of dental practice management company Maxim Software Systems. He earned his MBA at Edinburgh Business School and a B.Sc. in Technology Management at HIT in Israel.

His company helps struggling dental professionals take control of their practices and reach the next level of success with responsible leadership strategies.

 

 

Archives, Datebook, Global Trade Daily

LogiMed 2019: What to Expect

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Healthcare supply chain takes center stage at the 2019 LogiMed USA conference through a series of case study evaluations, small group discussions, and strategic networking during this year’s two-day event.

Hosted at the Rancho Bernard Inn in San Diego, don’t miss the opportunity to learn about best practices in managing end-to-end supply chain with leading VPs and directors in the medical device and diagnostics manufacturing industry.

From March 19-21, participants will hear from the experts of leading companies such as Kaiser Permanente, Intermountain Healthcare, Medtronic, Johnson & Johnson, Mayo Clinic, and Amazon.

Scheduled panels provide insight on how to maintain complex customer needs, data collection for vendor-managed inventory, and a special leadership panel spotlighting female leaders in the supply chain.

For more information on the conference and registration details, visit: LogiMed USA