Partnership aims to advance cybersecurity practices in medical devices
Two medical device organisations have announced a new collaboration to advance cybersecurity practices across the entire medical device lifecycle.
The Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (AAMI) and the Archimedes Centre for Medical Device Security will work together to connect their networks of medical device and health technology professionals across the country.
Robert Burroughs, AAMI senior vice president of education, said: “Cybersecurity is a major area of concern for medical device safety, and it’s an area where AAMI has been active and will be even more active in the future. Our collaboration with Archimedes will expand the reach of some of the world's leading experts in the area of cybersecurity and lead to new education offerings and resources that will drive patient safety. We welcome them as members to the AAMI community.”
AAMI is a non-profit community of more than 9,000 professionals working to support the healthcare community in the development, management, and use of safe and effective health technology.
Archimedes was the first of its kind to bring together the different stakeholders from the medical devices industry—including healthcare providers, medical device manufacturers, security researchers, and regulators—for the purpose of solving security challenges. Housed at the University of Michigan’s Computer Science and Engineering department, the centre is funded by 17 institutional members to support graduate students and train healthcare professionals to better integrate security engineering into medical device design, procurement, and operation.
Representatives at AAMI cite a growing focus on security across the medical devices industry as a major motivation behind the collaboration.
Burroughs added: “There are a few things happening in the future that are really crucial for medical devices. In an Internet-of-Things world, cybersecurity is already here today as an issue and it’s only going to grow in importance.”
The two organisations intend to connect their membership and stakeholder networks to work on advancing security practices for these devices. Potential outcomes of this initiative include a standardised healthcare and medical device security curriculum for manufacturers and healthcare delivery organisations.
Professor Kevin Fu, University of Michigan professor and chief scientist at the Archimedes Centre, said: "We appreciate how AAMI represents thousands of experts in healthcare technology, sterilisation, and medical device manufacturing. The Archimedes cybersecurity collaboration with AAMI will help us to significantly grow our broader impact on society for trustworthy, safe, and effective delivery of healthcare."
The organisations are considering additional joint activities to promote their overlapping work, including an annual innovation award for medical device security.