Medical devices on hospital networks at risk

Medical devices are becoming more integrated with hospital networks, which means the data on both the devices and the networks could become more vulnerable to security breaches.

According to reports from this week’s Safeguarding Health Information Conference in Washington, D.C., such security breaches could cause medical devices to malfunction and possibly harm patients.

The recently formed Medical Device Innovation, Safety and Security Consortium is currently working to define the scope of medical device security and safety issues, according to the consortium’s chairman, Dale Nordenberg.