Healthcare IT Leaders to Highlight Cybersecurity Policy Challenges During Event on Capitol Hill

ANN ARBOR, MI, Oct. 4, 2017 – Members of the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) and the Association for Executives in Healthcare Information Security (AEHIS) will take to Capitol Hill today for National Health IT Week and Cybersecurity Awareness Month to call on policymakers to aid the industry in improving the current state of healthcare cybersecurity.

Healthcare CIOs and CISOs will discuss the action items recommended by the Healthcare Industry Cybersecurity Task Force delivered to Congress on June 2, 2017. The Congressionally mandated report included directives to healthcare delivery organizations, medical device manufacturers, professional organizations and policymakers alike.

The event will include an update on cybersecurity activities from the Department of Health and Human Services, an overview of the Health Care Industry Cybersecurity Task Force and insights from health IT leaders on policies ranging from regulatory complexity and information sharing to liability protections and medical device cybersecurity. Cybersecurity remains the top policy priority for healthcare CIOs as determined by CHIME’s annual member survey.

“Healthcare organizations are under siege from bad actors seeking to access, or worse, corrupt patient data or impede patient care. Improving the cybersecurity  of the healthcare industry is a matter of patient safety and there are existing policies that are impeding the industry’s efforts to advance their cybersecurity posture,” said Leslie Krigstein, CHIME’s vice president of Congressional affairs.

The briefing titled, “The Critical State of Healthcare Cybersecurity: Leveraging the Recommendations Made by the Health Care Industry Cybersecurity Task Force,” will take place from 12:30 – 2:30 p.m. in 485 Russell Senate Office Building in Washington, DC.

Speakers include:

• Steve Curren, MSFS, Director for the Division of Resilience, Office of Emergency Management, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

• Cletis Earle, Vice President and Chief Information Officer, Kaleida Health
• Liz Johnson, MS, FAAN, FCHIME, FHIMSS, CHCIO, RN-BC, Chief Information Officer, Acute Care Hospitals & Applied Clinical Informatics, Tenet Healthcare
• Theresa Meadows, MS, RN, CHCIO, FHIMSS, Senior Vice President and CIO, Cook Children’s Health Care System
• Karl West, CISO and Assistant Vice President, Intermountain Healthcare
• Moderator: Leslie Krigstein, Vice President of Congressional Affairs, CHIME

About CHIME

The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) is an executive organization dedicated to serving chief information officers (CIOs) and other senior healthcare IT leaders. With over 2,400 CIO members and over 150 healthcare IT vendors and professional services firms, CHIME provides a highly interactive, trusted environment enabling senior professional and industry leaders to collaborate; exchange best practices; address professional development needs; and advocate the effective use of information management to improve the health and healthcare in the communities they serve. For more information, please visit chimecentral.org.

Contacts