From the January/February 2019 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine

Real savings and tangible performance improvement
Since removing anti-virus from the radiology workstations and replacing it with Bromium, we have noticed a significant improvement in machine performance. It doesn’t rely on scanning, so everything can be done in real time and we are confident that even if something nasty does get to a user we are still protected, as the threat will be isolated.

Removing the performance lag has increased staff productivity, helped our doctors make speedier decisions, and improved patient care efficiency. Our IT security and SOC operation teams can now quickly and efficiently determine the impact of incoming malware and begin remediation efforts before it becomes a larger issue. My next goal is to remove AV from our remote coders’ endpoints, as managing anti-virus updates for remote workers can be a challenge.
Sharing the experience with other healthcare facilities
Most of today’s medical facilities use machines that read radiology images, and they are likely to experience the same issues that we came across – these devices can’t be left unprotected, but anti-virus causes performance problems, which is unacceptable, especially when scans need to be read quickly to make swift decisions about patient care. There are great lessons to be learned here; the success we had will help other medical facilities because patient care and satisfaction is the utmost priority for all of us in the healthcare field.

About the author: Summitt is an industry veteran. He spent 21 years with the Department of Defense, before transitioning to the healthcare sector. In 2017, he was awarded the Information Security Executive Southeast People’s Choice Award, and his department’s Security Operations Center (SOC) was nominated as a leading project. More recently, Summitt has been brought in as a fellow to the Institute of Critical Infrastructure Technology, a national cyber-security think-tank and was recently invited to become a member for the Forbes Technology Council.

H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute is a nonprofit cancer research and treatment facility located in Tampa, Florida. Moffitt is one of the only 49 National Cancer institute-designated comprehensive cancer centers, and is ranked No. 9 cancer hospital in the nation.


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