Public Health Consequences of a Cyber Event
Healthcare in the 21st Century depends on an increasingly complex network of systems that, at their most basic level, rely on uninterrupted power and intact telecommunications. Everything from medical records, laboratory and imaging results, and insurance claims require services that are susceptible to geomagnetic storms, loss of power, aging infrastructure, or terrorist threats. While government planners have looked at a variety of disaster scenarios that might affect health care, few have specifically addressed cyber events. This session will examine the impacts and extended loss of power, telecommunications, and access to data storage and the Internet might have and ways in which we can mitigate these threats and provide continuous medical care to patients.
