Category: Medical Computer

Medical Grade Computers For Emergency Room Use

Medical Computers For Emergency Room Use

Michelle

In 2016, U.S. emergency rooms treated 145.6 million Americans for their emergency conditions according to the Center for Disease Control. This number has been steadily rising since the 1990s, and can be expected to continue increasing with each passing year. With such a high demand for emergency services, it is important to keep your hospital’s emergency room as up to date as possible. With the latest medical computers at your physician’s side, emergency room wait times can drastically decrease and patients can get the life-saving care they need.

Medix E22B | E24B

E22B and E24B from Tangent: built for emergency room use
E22B and E24B from Tangent: built for emergency room use

The Medix line of medical computers from Tangent are some of the most valuable assets that an emergency room can contain. With a wide touchscreen, busy emergency room personnel can quickly input a patient’s data and get right to helping them. Unlike other computers, the Medix E22B does not quit. With hot-swap battery technology, the Medix E22B can be safely unplugged from a wall outlet and still operate normally. In an emergency situation, the last thing you want to be worrying about is how to transfer medical data around with a patient. The Meddix E22B allows doctors to unplug their medical computer and follow their patient with the same data they admitted them with.

Medix T24B

The T24B with Hot-Swap batteries for Emergency Room use
The T24B with Hot-Swap batteries for Emergency Room use

The Medix T24B from Tangent features the same hot-swap battery technology as the Medix E22b, also with three built in slots for batteries. This allows the Medix T24B to not only access the power of three batteries at once, but continuously run 24/7 without being plugged in. The Medix T24B is perfect for medical carts that are constantly in demand and cannot afford to be put out of commission for charging. With 6th generation Intel processors, this medical computer is as fast as it is reliable and can handle any medical program thrown at it.

Medix KW 15

Medical grade computer for emergency room us, the KW line from Tangent
Medical grade computer for emergency room use, the KW 15 from Tangent

As hospital emergency rooms become increasingly more crowded, every square inch of space will become ever more valuable. That’s why smaller medical computers such as the Medix KW 15 are a vital tool for any emergency room. While examination and surgery rooms can afford the luxury of a widescreen medical computer, the same may not be true for emergency rooms. The Medix KW 15 features all the power of a traditional medical computer but in a sleeker, smaller package. This allows doctors more space to treat patients, while still maintaining the computational power needed to do their job to the fullest. 

Reduce Emergency Room Times With Medical Computers

With emergency room wait times only expected to rise, the time to plan for a crowded emergency waiting room is now. Medical computers from Tangent can help reduce wait times, improve emergency room computing power, and help those truly in need of help.

Medical computers by Tangent are also Antimicrobial computers

The Importance Of Antimicrobial Medical PCs

Michelle

We all like to think of hospitals as places in society where people go to get healthier, and for the most part this is true. However, this is not always the case as hospitals can inadvertently become breeding grounds for harmful diseases. The CDC estimates that each and every day, 1 in 31 hospitals will see a healthcare-associated infection (HAI).

Coinciding with a decrease in the viability of antibiotics, HAIs can turn hospitals into hazardous areas for those who are prone to infection. Often, these same individuals are the ones most in need of a hospital’s services. So what can be done?

Antimicrobial Computers Offer A Compelling Solution

While there’s no one-size-fits-all solution to HAIs, antimicrobial computers offer one way to minimize the risk of such infections from occurring. Antimicrobial computers are medical computers that are coated with an antimicrobial treatment. This coating causes the medical computer to be deadly to harmful bacteria, much like how the natural properties of copper make the metal germ-phobic. Typically, every medical computer is an antimicrobial computer, but it is important to check beforehand if this is the case. Luckily, at Tangent all of our medical computers are antimicrobial computers and UL60601-Certified.

Are Antimicrobial Computers Safe?

Antimicrobial computers are not only safe, they are some of the safest medical computers out there. Their antimicrobial coating prevents bacteria from breeding and growing on the medical computer’s surface without being harmful to doctors and patients. Antimicrobial computers are perfectly safe to touch, which is one of the reasons why Tangent’s lineup of medical grade computers are all touchscreen enabled. This allows doctors to use these antimicrobial computers without worrying about the bacteria on their hands. Unlike computers reliant on mice and keyboards, antimicrobial medical computers will not become breeding grounds for bacteria.

Are Antimicrobial Computers Easy To Clean?

Not only are antimicrobial computers easy to clean, they are built to be cleaned! While other computers and computer monitors require specialty cleaning agents in order to not be damaged, antimicrobial medical computers are able to be cleaned with traditional cleaning supplies. Regular cleaning does not remove the antimicrobial coating either, ensuring that these medical computers last well past their warranty. What’s more, antimicrobial computers mitigate the growth of harmful bacteria on their surface, meaning that with a cleaning they become nearly germ free.

Antimicrobial Computers: Reduce Your HAIs

If reducing the amount of HAIs in your hospital is a priority, then antimicrobial medical computers may be the solution you are looking for. These advanced medical computers come in various sizes and styles, and can quickly and easily become an indispensable tool for your facility.

 

How To Better Use Your Medical Grade Computer

How To Prevent Critical Electronic Health Records Mistakes

Michelle

There’s no doubt that medical grade computers have made hospitals safer, more productive environments to treat patients. From their antimicrobial coating which mitigates the growth of nosocomial infection causing bacteria to their robust IP certified water resistance, medical grade computers have made a lasting impact on the quality of care provided to patients.

 

Sadly, the same cannot always be said about the software running on these devices. The misuse of medical software such as Electronic Health Records (EHR) can lead to shockingly wrong results. While neither the fault of the software or medical grade computer, mishaps by untrained medical staff using such tools can lead to dangerous outcomes. Here are a few tips to help medical staff prevent errors while using software on their medical grade computers.

 

Be Aware Of Default Settings On Your Electronic Health Record Program

Every EHR program running on a medical grade computer is different, but many have the same features. One similarity that goes unnoticed is their use of default settings and inputs for entry fields. Just like how a website may have a random date filled in for your birthday when signing up, some EHR programs have default numbers filled in for various entry fields. A default drug measurement setting may be present on your EHR program, either by the software provider or your IT department. Make sure that both you and your medical staff are aware of this , as it is entirely possible that they assume the default measurement is correct, and accidentally mis-prescribe a patient.

 

In addition, an unclear medication list present on your EHR program can similarly lead to mis-prescriptions. Medication lists that are hard to read, uninformative, or lack dosing information can lead to medical staff assuming that they are prescribing the correct dosage while in fact doing the opposite. 

 

Train Your Medical Staff Rigorously

EHR programs running on medical grade computers are meant to aid physicians and medical staff, not harm them. While there are problems with these programs, they come from a lack of knowledge and training surrounding the programs. Educate your staff on the presence of default drug measurements, and have your IT department update the default setting to a nonviable integer (such as 0) if possible. Creating a detailed medication list that is both informative and easy to read can also greatly improve EHR usability on medical grade computers. Above all, make sure your staff is regularly refreshed on how to use their EHR program and medical grade computer to their full potential.

 

Avoid Critical Mistakes

Mistakes in the hospital carry consequences not seen in any other sector, and should be avoided at all costs. Making sure that your medical staff is trained to the fullest extent on the use of EHR programs is crucial to providing quality care to patients. Medical technology has always been a force for good, and it is important to treat EHR programs as the medical tools that they are.

Medical Computers Are Safer Than Traditional Computers In The Hospital

Dangerous Bacteria In Hospitals

Michelle

When we discuss the prevention of nosocomial infections in the hospital—clostridium difficile (C. diff), Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureu (MRSA), Escherichia coli (E. Coli)— it is important to note all the various ways these diseases are transmitted. From one medical exam room to the next, medical staff carry such diseases across the hospital. It’s already well known that medical staff need to clean the mice and keyboards of their medical computers regularly in order to kill these diseases, however this may not be enough. 

 

In addition to these diseases resisting most traditional cleaning agents, a recent preprint of a Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine paper suggests even the mousepads of medical computers harbor these dangerous bacteria. This calls into question the efficacy of traditional medical computers in general, with every peripheral potentially enabling life threatening diseases. All-in-one medical computers offer a promising solution, eliminating the need for disease carrying peripherals while operating above the level of traditional medical computers.

 

All-In-One Medical Computers: No Dirty Accessories

All-in-one medical computers differ from traditional medical computers in a number of ways, but most notably in their ability to operate without a mouse, keyboard, or mousepad; everything one needs to operate an all-in-one medical computer is localized in the actual medical computer. 

 

All-in-one medical computers feature antimicrobial touchscreens, allowing medical staff to fully utilize their medical computer without the use of a keyboard or mouse. Without these accessories, all-in-one medical computers negate the rampant growth of harmful bacteria and require less cleaning. In addition, all-in-one medical computers come with a durable antimicrobial coat to counter the potential spread of such bacteria. This coating mitigates the growth of bacteria that is transferred to the all-in-one medical computer instead of simply letting the bacteria fester and grow. With an antimicrobial coating, all-in-one medical computers are far more cleaner than their traditional counterparts while also being easier to use.

 

Easier Than Ever

All-in-one medical computers are not only safer than traditional medical computers, they are also easier to use. It may seem counterintuitive that a medical computer without a mouse, keyboard, or mousepad would be easier to interact with but in reality using all-in-one medical computers is a lot like using your own personal phone. Tasks such as scrolling, clicking, and locating information on digital medical charts becomes far less tenuous and nearly second nature. All-in-one medical computers are as easy to use as they are safe, and allow your medical staff to focus solely on their patient’s well being instead of whether their interactions are causing said patient to become more ill.

 

All-In-One Medical Computers: Safe And Easy

With new information coming out every month showcasing how common hospital items can actually harbor dangerous bacteria, staying up to date is more important than ever to mitigate nosocomial infections. All-in-one medical computers offer a compelling solution to the problem of computer accessories harboring such bacteria, eliminating bacteria growth and making the job of medical staff far easier.

Medical Tablets

The Importance Of Digital Health Records

Michelle

In no other field is staying on the edge of technology as important as it is in the medical field. Each day, new advances in medical technology are helping people live longer, happier lives. While some technology can assist in diagnosing, patient care, or even surgery, we should not overlook the clerical side of technology that is making hospital paperwork far more efficient. 

 

According to a study commissioned by Phillips on future health, 80% of medical professionals have shared information electronically and 76% utilize digital health records (DHRs) on their medical grade PCs. However, despite this large DHR utilization, only 57% report that having full access to a patient’s DHR has positively impacted them. With the disparity between these two statistics, it’s important to address the lack of enthusiasm surrounding the widespread implementation of DHR use.

 

Ditch The Pen And Paper

While DHRs are quickly becoming the de facto method of patient information storage, sometimes vital information is left out unintentionally. When doctors take pen and paper notes, or rely on scribes to take notes for them, they create valuable insight into a patient’s life. What they eat, their allergies, their daily routines; all things that can directly affect their health. However, there is no guarantee that these hard copy notes will ever be digitized, and potentially life saving details can be left out of the DHR. Encourage your medical staff to fully utilize their medical grade PC when taking notes to ensure that all patient information is digitized. Many medical grade PCs and medical panel PCs come equipped with a front facing camera, so in the event a staff member does write down crucial information, it can be easily added to the patient’s DHR.

 

Easy Information Access

While professional medical staff may find DHRs easy to use when they have them, they may be off put by how difficult they are to find. Medical panel PCs with smartcard readers and RFID technology can rectify this problem by allowing professional medical staff to safely and securely store the pathing to patient information, without having to worry about memorizing the correct way to get to the patient’s information. The same smartcard technology can be used to allow professional medical staff to login to their medical panel PC or medical grade PC without having to remember a long and complex password, saving them from a potential headache and call to I.T. The RFID technology utilized by medical grade PC’s can also be used to track medical equipment that is shuffled around the hospital, allowing for every item to be accounted for.

 

Ease Of Access

It’s no secret that some people are averse to technology, but that does not mean we can’t make them more comfortable with it in the workplace. Medical panel PCs are medical grade PCs that feature a sleek, all in one design. That means that they can function as fully fledged medical grade PCs without needing a bulky tower, keyboard, mouse, or separate monitor. Simply plug them in, and they are good to go. The simplicity of medical panel PCs’ design and their robust features such as smartcard readers and RFID technology means that they are sure to raise professional medical staff’s mood towards the digital side of their job. Medical grade PCs are built for the medical world, and can make medical staff’s use of DHRs far more positive.

Doctor's Time face to face

Give Your Patients The Face-To-Face Time They Need

Michelle

Face-To-Face: The Patient’s Preference

It almost goes without saying that as social creatures, people love talking to people. But in today’s modern world, machines and automation are taking the human element out of many sectors of the economy, leading people to feel isolated from the institutions they rely upon. Nowhere else is this as pronounced as in the medical field, where doctor time spent with patients in primary care visits has dropped a whopping 18% in a mere four years. Technology, while at the crux of this crisis, also lends us a solution in the form of Medical Panel PCs.

 

What Is A Medical Panel PC?

A medical panel PC is a type of medical grade computer, that unlike standard desktop computers, can help increase the number of times doctors spend face-to-face with their patients. Typical desktop computers are bulky, sitting under a desk collecting dust and rely upon external hardware such as mice, keyboards, and monitors to function. Medical panel PCs, like the Medix M24T from Tangent are just the opposite, featuring a sleek design and utilizing a built-in touchscreen to function. Because of this medical grade computer’s all-in-one design, the Medix M24T requires no peripherals and can stand alone.

 

Medical Panel PCs: Built To Connect

Medical Panel PCs may be sleeker and easier to operate than traditional desktop PCs, but where they really shine is in their ability to help doctors maintain a personable connection with patients. Medical computers like the E22B from Tangent have a front-facing 5 Mega Pixel camera that allows for a variety of uses. Doctors can take quick photos of patient’s areas of concern for later diagnosis, or use the medical grade computer’s camera to easily digitize notes. The high-quality camera can even be used for video calling, allowing doctors to have a face-to-face appointment remotely. The possibilities of using a front-facing camera to better connect with patients are limitless.

 

Give Patients The Personable Experience They Want

People want to be able to connect with people, and while it is not always possible for doctors to physically meet with patients, there are still avenues for them to enjoy a face-to-face connection. Medical panel PCs are a great way to restore doctor-patient relationships while also embracing the benefits of technology.

medical grade PCs

Preventing Infections In A Post-Antibiotic World

Michelle

The Center for Disease Control And Prevention just released a 2019 AR threats report titled Antibiotic Resistance Threats in the United States, with some startling findings for the calendar year. The report found that 2.8 million antibiotic-resistant infections occur in the U.S. every year, resulting in 35,000 deaths. That’s nearly 1% of the U.S. population succumbing to an antibiotic-resistant infection every year, and a death every 15 minutes. The report goes on further to suggest, “Stop referring to a coming post-antibiotic era — it’s already here.” Keeping hospitals sanitary has never been so important, as reducing infections increasingly becomes the surest way of preventing antibiotic-resistant infection fatalities.

While the findings of the 2019 AR threats report are worrisome, there are ways you can help prevent antibiotic-resistant infections from occurring in the first place. High traffic locations in hospitals are prone to bacterial buildup, and these areas should be cleaned as regularly as possible. Similarly, medical computers constitute one of the most widely used tools in the medical setting, and can quickly become hotbeds for bacterial growth. Choosing the right medical computers for your hospital can drastically reduce the spread of bacteria via medical staff.

 

Medical Computers With Antimicrobial Enclosure

From medical assistants, nurses, and doctors, medical computers can change hands between multiple hospital staff members throughout the day. Each time a member of the medical staff interacts with a new patient, they are potentially spreading antibiotic-resistant bacteria to both the patient and other employees via medical computers. Ensuring that your staff’s medical computers have an antimicrobial enclosure is one way to keep this potential spread to a minimum. Antimicrobial enclosures feature an antimicrobial agent that clings to the surface of the medical computer, mitigating the growth of bacteria and helping reduce the chance of infection.

 

Fanless Medical Computers

Not all medical computers are created equal, but all medical computers should be fanless medical computers. Fanless medical computers, like the Medix T24B have passive cooling technology that allows them to regulate their temperature without the use of a computer fan. Unlike traditional fan-cooled computers, fanless medical computers do not circulate air inside them. This means that fanless medical computers do not build up dust, pathogens, and other contaminants inside their enclosure. If not cleaned out, the insides of traditional computers can become a breeding ground of bacteria, as more dust and dead skin cells find their way in and stick. Fanless medical computers offer a cleaner, safer way to provide medical computing power in the hospital setting.

Water Resistant Medical Computers

One critical feature of medical computers is the ability to repel liquids. This allows for medical computers to be cleaned regularly with cleaning agents, without damaging the sensitive components within. Medical computers like the Medix KW Line from Tangent feature an IP54 certified water resistant front panel, allowing for the touch screen to be cleaned without damaging the antimicrobial enclosure. The combination of an antimicrobial enclosure and water resistance allows for medical computers to be the last thing you have to worry about causing infections in the hospital.

With a person dying every 15 minutes from an antibiotic resistant infection, it is time hospitals took the prevention of such diseases as seriously as possible. Medical computers from Tangent can help reduce the spread of bacteria in one of the most trafficked areas of hospitals.

medical grade PCs

You Can’t Stop Clostridioides Difficile In The Hospital, But There Is Hope

Michelle

If you work in a hospital, you may be familiar with Clostridioides difficile (C. diff), a bacterium strain that causes antibiotic-resistant infections. While the prospect of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, commonly known as “superbugs,” are scary enough on their own, a new study in the journal Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy has given us a new reason to worry about C. diff. The study, spearheaded by Kevin Garey, a professor of pharmacy practice at the University of Houston in Texas, shows that C. diff is highly resistant to seven of the most commonly used cleaning agents in hospitals. So, what can be done to stop C. diff?

The study concluded, ”no disinfectant was able to completely eliminate C. diff embedded within biofilms.” While this was in a laboratory setting, the ramifications of this conclusion are apparent: normal cleaning is not enough to stop C. diff. Surfaces that are regularly cleaned, like those of medical computers, are still at risk of housing superbugs. Even worse, medical grade PCs are constantly being touched by different medical personnel, each potentially spreading or contracting superbug bacteria.

Tangent Medix T19B
Tangent Medix T19B

Luckily, medical grade PCs from Tangent have a few key features built-in that can help ward off potentially infectious superbugs. Tangent’s lineup of medical computers feature an antimicrobial coating, which mitigates the growth of bacteria. While this coating does not outright kill bacteria, it prohibits the growth of it, effectively eliminating newly placed bacteria over time. This allows medical grade PCs from Tangent to be safely handled by multiple medical personnel and reduced the likelihood of a superbug spread. 

Medical computers from Tangent also come equipped with passive cooling technology, which is completely fanless. Without fans, Tangent medical grade PCs reduce the spread of airborne pathogens and do not build up bacteria cesspools in their enclosures over time. Fanless cooling technology allows Tangent medical computers to be fully enclosed, ensuring that they do not contribute to stagnant, germy environments.

medical grade PCs
Medix KW Series

Because of these airtight enclosures, Tangent medical computers are also rated for IP water resistance. This allows them to be easily cleaned with common cleaning agents. While Professor Garey’s study concluded that no regularly used cleaning agents in hospitals were effective at completely killing C. diff, they did find that Clorox, OPA, and Virex were the most effective at reducing C. diff spores. These cleaners, in conjunction with Tangent’s antimicrobial enclosures, can help curtail the growth and spread of superbugs like C. diff.

With antibiotic resistance on the rise everywhere around the globe, it’s more important than ever to keep your hospital as safe as possible from potential superbug infections. Tangent medical grade PCs can help your hospital stay clean, and remain a place for patients to become healthier.

Doctor Burnout from Computer Usage

Preventing Doctor Burnout From Computer Usage

Michelle

It’s no secret that the majority of doctors choose their profession because of one ideal: they truly want to help people. Being a doctor means meeting with patients face-to-face, listening to them, and comforting them. Sadly, in our digital age, people are increasingly becoming more and more isolated as screens take the place of people. This phenomenon has unfortunately spread to doctors, who are spending as much as twice the amount of time looking at screens as they do looking at patients. This can help lead to doctors suffering from occupational burnout, in which doctors may feel powerless or too stressed to work at optimal levels.

 

The World Health Organization has recognized occupation burnout as an actual medical condition, and taking the condition as seriously as they do can drastically help your hospital.  A study by two Stanford researchers found that burnout costs the U.S. economy up to $190 billion dollars every year. 

Better Access

This phenomenon is not unprecedented, as our technology advances so too does it’s complexity. As decision making on how medical computers are deployed and what software is on them shifts from doctors to management, it is important that doctor’s concerns are taken seriously and their input taken into consideration.

Medix KW Series
Medix KW Series

As doctors have to interact with multiple medical computers throughout the day, saving them the hassle of having to remember a litany of passwords may help ease their stress. Attempting to keep track of multiple passwords for separate medical computers, and then having to contact IT for a password reset can be a time intensive process that turns doctors off from using their medical computers as often as they need to. Medical computers like the Medix KW come equipped with both smart card readers and RFID readers, meaning that doctors can log into these medical computers in the blink of an eye.

 

Better Involvement

While it may seem like the IT department in charge of keeping your medical grade computers have little in common with the doctors using them, a strong relationship between these departments can go a long way. Making sure that the maintainers and users of medical grade computer systems are in touch can help communication of computer problems go much faster. After all, medical grade computers have a large amount of specialty software, and the quickly evolving landscape of digital medical care requires constant learning. Organize meetings between your IT department and medical staff regularly to ensure that all staff are on the same page about medical grade computer usage.

 

Better Usability

Doctors aren’t medical scribes, and their work hours shouldn’t be taken up trying to type on a keyboard hooked up to a medical grade computer. Touchscreen based medical grade computers can save doctors vast amounts of time, as their intuitive interface can be interacted with in the same way doctors use their own smartphones. These medical grade computers should have a strong antimicrobial coating, to ensure that use by multiple medical staff does not cause bacteria build up. 

 

Don’t Give Up

Technology, and medical grade computers, aren’t going anywhere any time soon. While long periods of usage can cause medical grade computers to become a source of burnout, it doesn’t necessarily have to. Keeping your staff updated on how to use their medical grade computers can drastically help alleviate stress they may feel when using them. Updating your medical grade computers to ones with quality of life improvements such as smart card readers can also help. In the end, communication can make a huge difference in preventing occupational burnout.

medical computer safety

Keeping Your Hospital Safe From Hackers and Malware

Michelle

Many of us seldom think about who—or what— is watching us as we browse the internet. Many websites make use of cookies, which are snippets of code that help keep track of data such as passwords or shopping cart items while you browse the site. While cookies are mostly harmless, similar technologies can be deployed to mine your personal data to gain access to your not only your personal, but work accounts. Keeping your and your staff’s personal data safe on hospital medical computers is crucial to preventing system-wide hacks that can lead to extortion, or worse.

How Do Hackers Infiltrate Medical Computer Networks?

While it’s fun to think of hackers as super-smart, leather trench coat wearing folks sitting behind multiple monitors smashing away at keyboards, the reality of hacking is that many hackers rely on their victim’s human errors. Phishing emails, short and easy-to-guess passwords, and outdated software can turn one medical computer on your network into a hacker’s playground.

 

  • Phishing emails are designed to appear as legitimate emails, often giving off the impression of being sent by a supervisor, IT, or even a friend. These emails typically give a long, contriving explanation as to why certain sensitive data needs to be sent to the phisher immediately. Users of medical computers who are not trained to detect such emails are lured into the false urgency of the email, and send off their personal information without thinking about who it is going to. 
  • There are many misconceptions about passwords, namely that having difficult, complex passwords is the best way to protect your data. While complexity is a factor of how hard a password is for hackers to guess, it often leads to personnel forgetting their passwords to their medical computers and having to constantly reset them.
  • Outdated software on your medical computers constitutes one of the easiest backdoors that hackers have into your network. Outdated software is susceptible due to hackers having more time to figure out how to hack into the software, and being able to use the same method across multiple medical computers.

 

What Damage Can Hackers Do To Medical Computer Networks?

Simply put: it’s a hacker’s world, we’re just living in it. Charles Henderson, global head of IBM’s hacking unit X-Force Red, took to the stage at this year’s Blackhat cybersecurity conference and hacked an ATM, turning it into a cash dispenser in just a few minutes. If a computer exists, it can be hacked and likewise, your medical computers can be hacked. But it’s not just medical computers either, even pacemakers or insulin pumps can be hacked by nefarious folk.

 

While the prospect of patient’s life saving apparatus suddenly being disabled by deviants is justifiably terrifying, most hackers aren’t out to cause such chaos. Instead, they are after one thing: money. Hackers have taken to infiltrating hospital’s medical computer networks, and locking down all files until a ransom is paid. This ransom takes form in the form of untraceable bitcoin, allowing for the hackers to make a clean getaway without ever having set foot in your hospital. Hancock Health was forced to pay hackers $55,000 in 2018 in order to re-access their files that hackers had encrypted and held for ransom. 

 

Preventing Medical Computer Hacking

It’s more than likely that your hospital would not like to pay hackers for access to your own medical computers. Preventing hackers from infiltrating your medical computer network is not as simple as we may like to think, but there are certain ways you can stay one step ahead of the dark web. 

  • Hold Trainings

The easiest way to prevent medical grade computer breaches is to train your medical staff to recognize the various ways that they are constantly under cyber-attack. Medical grade computers are hot-beds for attacks from all angles such as phishing. There are multiple courses, as well as DIY seminars that can teach your staff how to recognize phishing emails, and how to handle them properly. Never ask your staff for any personal information via email, and inform them that any such requests will take place in person. The urgency suggested by phishing emails may cause staff to panic and forget to check who is sending them such emails, but if they know that supervisors would never ask for such information via email they can handle the situation properly.

  • Better Passwords

Complex passwords are a good way of keeping your medical grade computers safe, but they lead to confusion and wasted time by staff trying to remember their logins. Try having your medical staff use passphrases to login to their medical grade computers instead. Passphrases are simply long, easy to remember sentences that staff can use as a password for their medical grade computer that would take a hacker literal centuries to crack. An example would be using “thisismygreatpasswordthaticanremember” instead of “password”.

  • Update Medical Grade Computer Software

If you haven’t updated your medical grade computer’s software in a while, the best time is yesterday. Medical grade computers have to run many different software packages, and while it may be a pain to keep every single one updated, it is crucial to your medical grade computer’s integrity.

 

There’s no one-size-fits-all solution to keeping your medical grade computer network safe. Only a trained and aware medical staff can help keep hacking risks to a minimum. Medical grade computers are only as capable as their users, and keeping your users informed is the best practice.