ArticleBMC medical informatics and decision making2020
Analyzing medical device connectivity and its effect on cyber security in german hospitals.
Article in BMC medical informatics and decision making, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers.
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Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed, 16 citations in OpenAlex.
- Regulatory Approaches to Cybersecurity Risk Management for AI-Enabled Medical Device Software in Korea, the United States, and the European Union: Comparative Document Analysis.JMIR medical informatics · 2026Article
- The Role of the Organization in Promoting Information Security-Related Behavior Among Resident Physicians in Hospitals in Germany: Cross-Sectional Questionnaire Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2025Article
- Cybersecurity requirements for medical devices in the EU and US - A comparison and gap analysis of the MDCG 2019-16 and FDA premarket cybersecurity guidance.Computational and structural biotechnology journal · 2025Article
- When all computers shut down: the clinical impact of a major cyber-attack on a general hospital.Frontiers in digital health · 2024Article
- Internet of Medical Things Security Frameworks for Risk Assessment and Management: A Scoping Review.Journal of multidisciplinary healthcare · 2024Article
- Information Security Awareness and Behaviors of Health Care Professionals at Public Health Care Facilities.Applied clinical informatics · 2021Article
- Cyber-resilient Intensive Care Unit: Ransomware is a Patient-safety Crisis-A Resource-stratified Approach for India.Indian journal of critical care medicine : peer-reviewed, official publication of Indian Society of Critical Care MedicineArticle
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundModern healthcare devices can be connected to computer networks and many western healthcare institutions run those devices in networks. At the same time, cyber attacks are on the rise and there is evidence that cybercriminals do not spare critical infrastructure such as major hospitals, even if they endanger patients. Intuitively, the more and closer connected healthcare devices are to public networks, the higher the risk of getting attacked.
methodsTo asses the current connectivity status of healthcare devices, we surveyed the field of German hospitals and especially University Medical Center UMCs.
resultsThe results show a strong correlation between the networking degree and the number of medical devices. The average number of medical devices is 25.150, with a median of networked medical devices of 3.600. Actual key users of networked medical devices are the departments Radiology, Intensive Care, Radio-Oncology RO, Nuclear Medicine NUC, and Anaesthesiology in the group of UMCs. In the next five years, the usage of networked medical devices will increase significantly in the departments of Surgery, Intensive Care, and Radiology. We detected a strong correlation between the degree of connectivity and the likelihood of being attacked.The survey answers regarding the cyber security status reveal a lack of security basics in some of the inquired hospitals. We did discover successful attacks in hospitals with separated or subsidiary departments. A fusion of competencies on an organizational level facilitates the right behavior here. Most hospitals rated themselves predominantly positively in the self-assessment but also stated the usefulness of IT security insurance.
conclusionsConcluding our results, hospitals are already facing the consequences of omitted measures within their growing pool of medical devices. Continuously relying on historically grown structures without adaption and trusting manufactures to solve vectors is a critical behavior that could seriously endanger patients.
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Registered trials
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