We've created this newsletter for our customers to communicate what's new, let you know about upcoming events, share customer stories, and introduce you to members of our team.
We hope you find this newsletter informative and something that you look forward to receiving. If you have suggestions for topics, or have questions about something that's been featured here, please let us know.
A Note from
Erik Littlejohn
Cybersecurity and AI
It was tough to follow Richard Phung’s insightful commentary on cybersecurity last month, but I'm happy to try to take the reins on a November newsletter
intro. I was fortunate to recently visit many customers and partners at MEDITECH LIVE and the MEDITECH Users Network (MUN). I picked up on many common themes across disparate healthcare settings in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Ireland, which was heartening.
As expected, cybersecurity remains at the top of all healthcare organizations' minds.
Nearly every organization has been impacted in some way, from minor incidents to full-blown ransomware. However, there is a growing recognition that cybersecurity is not just an IT problem. For many years, we’ve focused on the issue as being one of patient safety and not just patient data. It’s a crucial distinction that resonates across all departments in a hospital and can help energize efforts to plan for cyber incidents proactively. CloudWave can help your readiness by facilitating cross-functional assessments and tabletop exercises that help reinforce the need for coordination and buy-in beyond the IT department.
Another common theme I heard is that organizations are seriously considering tangible applications of Artificial Intelligence (AI). The most readily available use cases appear to be focused on clinical efficiency. We’ve all seen a lot of hype around AI over the past 18+ months, but it feels like we’re beginning to transition into actual adoption. MEDITECH’s Search and Summarization, ambient listening, and Microsoft’s Co-pilot are considered more seriously as game-changing resources to enhance clinical efficiency. As an IT geek, I find these are really exciting developments in positioning technology as a strategic tool for healthcare. This, again, is an area where CloudWave can help by taking on managed services like managed hosting, disaster recovery, and backup so that your team can maximize time where it really matters- accelerating the adoption of AI-assisted tools that help improve clinical care.
As we transition to the holidays, I wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving and a safe and peaceful season over the coming weeks.
Erik Littlejohn is President and CEO at CloudWave.
Stay up to date with our latest news, press releases, and events on LinkedIn.
CloudWave wins Top Place to Work
CloudWave, Healthcare IT Solutions has been recognized as one of the "Best Places to Work in Healthcare" by Modern Healthcare and Healthcare Innovation's "Top Companies to Work for in Healthcare" in 2024. We are honored to be named and we believe that providing a positive culture and supportive environment for our employees translates into serving our customers well. The rankings lists will be published at a later date.
BLOG: The Changing Landscape of Cybersecurity Accountability in Healthcare
During the last ten years, 489 million patient records have been compromised at an average cost of $9.48 million per breach, with each incident posing a significant risk to patient privacy. This has increased cybersecurity-related lawsuits, and more CISOs and other C-suite (CIO, CEO, CFO, etc.) members are starting to be held legally accountable for not deploying appropriate security measures.
Mike Donahue featured in HIT Consultant and Healthcare IT Today
Considerations and Safeguards Addressing Potential Vulnerabilities in Connected Medical Devices and the Internet of Things (IoT)
To address potential vulnerabilities in connected medical devices and the Internet of Things within the healthcare ecosystem, Mike Donahue, Chief Delivery Officer at CloudWave, shared with Healthcare IT Today how healthcare organizations must go beyond their IT Incident Response plan and consider adopting a medical device cybersecurity approach that prioritizes patients.
Training Your Staff From Becoming a Vulnerability to Your Healthcare Organization
Proper and regularly scheduled training can help minimize security mistakes. But what can be done to train staff to prevent them from becoming a vulnerability to your healthcare organization?
CloudWave is proud to be a sponsor of the 30th annual Rural Health
Association of Tennessee Conference in Knoxville, Tennessee. We look forward to participating in discussions among rural health leaders about the benefits of cloud-based healthcare and enhanced cybersecurity for organizations for all sizes.
CloudWave sponsors the Ohio MUSE Community Peer Group
Save November 20 on the calendar to join your Ohio MUSE peers for a great day of education and networking.
CloudWave is pleased to offer a new way to streamline the way we deliver changes to your OpSus Cloud Services.
Incremental adjustments to the scope of your cloud service are to be expected, but the timing and process may not always be convenient. CloudWave is now able to provide a way to allow key personnel to pre-approve routine change orders.
With Advance Authorization, you set the boundaries. Adding components,
expanding storage, increasing capacity are all change order categories covered under your Advance Authorization Agreement.
Contact your Customer Success Manager or Sales Director to learn more.
Leave the Patching to CloudWave
Fully-Managed Patching Service for Healthcare keeps you safe
Failing to patch systems on a timely basis leaves your hospital vulnerable to
performance slowdowns, regulatory compliance issues, and even worse—the risk of cyber-attacks.
Utilizing the proven CloudCare+ patch maintenance strategy, healthcare enterprises
can prevent cyberattacks, performance slowdowns, and regulatory compliance issues.
CloudCare+ solves these challenges with a skilled service team that utilizes a proven process throughout the patching cycle. This enables healthcare IT teams to take a hands-off approach to maintenance while CloudWave keeps the environment
Learn More About the Cybersecurity Insider Program
Sign up today for the Cybersecurity Insider Program to join a community where you can regularly access free healthcare cybersecurity education and get alerted to threat intelligence gathered by our Cybersecurity Operations Center team. You will also have the opportunity to network with your peers to hear about their cybersecurity
successes.
Sign up now to get access to all 2023 and 2024 on-demand webinars, and then plan to join us for the next live webinar on November 21 at 2 p.m. ET.
Join this session to understand the top cybersecurity challenges healthcare organizations will face in 2025 and how you can plan for them. You'll learn:
Cybersecurity Trends for 2025
How AI will impact Cybersecurity
What cybersecurity challenges other healthcare organizations are focusing on in 2025
You'll also learn about some exciting changes for the Cybersecurity Insider Program in 2025!
Note: The Nov session will happen one week earlier than normal (Nov 21) due to the Thanksgiving Holiday.
Ongoing alerts to high-risk cybersecurity threats with recommended actions
Access to a private YouTube channel (you'll get immediate access upon program registration)
Access to a private LinkedIn Group
Exclusive access to special events
Meet Larry Backus
Principal Systems Engineer
Many CloudWave employees have spent their careers in healthcare IT.
As a Principal Systems Engineer, Larry provides a wide range of services for CloudWave’s on-premise customers. In addition to performing implementations, Larry offers Level 3 support, which refers to a group of professionals with the highest technical expertise within the company. Their technical knowledge and troubleshooting skills work to solve complex problems.
Before coming to CloudWave, Larry worked at a midsize MAGIC Hospital with Park Place and Park Place International, providing hardware and software support.
“I struck up great relationships with MEDITECH and Park Place International, which led me to seek future job opportunities.”
When Larry is not helping support MEDITECH customers, he participates in all things “power sports” throughout the seasons, including snowmobiling, off-roading, and boating.
“I’m also very active in supporting Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) and other veteran groups.”
When asked what Larry likes most about working in health care, he responded,
“I always need to learn new skills to engage on-premise customers with a variety of hardware, networks, storage, and software. Working and helping on-premise customers keeps me interested.”
