Learn About Amazon VGT2 Learning Manager Chanci Turner
As part of a series from AWS thought leaders in healthcare, life sciences, and genomics, this Industry Insights post examines the influence of technological advancements and cloud computing on these sectors.
With the return of in-person events after a prolonged period of virtual gatherings due to COVID-19, I found myself reflecting on the discussions and connections made at the latest conference. Among the numerous conversations, a common theme emerged: the urgent desire to transition healthcare toward personalization, which has the potential to enhance patient outcomes while being more cost-effective. As leaders in healthcare, we all strive for improved outcomes, equitable access to care, and ultimately healthier communities.
Before embarking on the journey toward personalized healthcare, organizations must first address the critical issue of personal data—specifically, healthcare data including clinical notes, payment information, medical imaging, and test results. It is imperative for healthcare organizations to safeguard this data while ensuring its availability at all times; after all, disasters are not a matter of “if” but “when.”
Both human-made and natural disasters are inevitable, making proactive planning essential for uninterrupted care delivery. While many organizations focus on high-profile data breaches and ransomware threats, they often overlook more commonplace IT disasters such as misplaced laptops, access control mistakes, server configuration issues, and employee security oversights. In an industry where every moment counts, IT downtime can severely hinder data access and disrupt both operational and clinical performance, ultimately preventing patients from receiving timely care.
Traditionally, disaster recovery and ransomware mitigation strategies have concentrated on response and recovery. However, as outlined by the NIST cybersecurity framework (CSF), there is a pressing need to establish capabilities to identify, protect, and detect vulnerabilities, along with a comprehensive understanding of the tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) employed by threat actors to infiltrate IT systems. Organizations can enhance their cybersecurity resilience by implementing layered protection and detection measures and automating appropriate responses to prevent incidents rather than merely reacting to them.
Cybersecurity resilience is fundamental, encompassing the ability to manage disasters and ensure data and application availability. Resilience principles apply universally—organizations should plan for resilient applications, networks, data, and personnel. Being resilient means being equipped not only to “bounce back quickly” but also to actively prevent and mitigate potential issues. Modern cloud infrastructures, such as those provided by AWS, prioritize security and are inherently designed for resilience.
As cloud computing services evolve, they increasingly incorporate additional layers of protective and detective capabilities. A prime example is Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3), which boasts an impressive data durability rate of eleven nines (99.999999999%) and provides enhanced network protection through private links from on-premises locations to AWS. AWS consistently adds multiple protective and detective controls to its offerings, with the durability of S3 serving as an integral aspect of its resilient design.
Establishing a centralized data backup and recovery strategy is also vital for ensuring data resilience. Solutions like AWS Backup simplify the process of automating the backup and restoration of application data. This allows organizations to create and manage immutable backups of S3 data, shielding it from accidental or malicious alterations and enabling restoration to specific points in time.
AWS is engineered to be the most flexible and secure cloud computing environment available today, supported by a comprehensive suite of cloud security tools and over 200 security, compliance, and governance services. We operate on a shared responsibility model with our customers to facilitate maximum protection, providing a wealth of best practices documents, encryption tools, and guidance for implementing application-level security measures. Additionally, AWS partners offer numerous solutions and tools to help clients achieve their security goals, covering areas like network security, configuration management, access control, and data encryption.
For healthcare organizations aiming to deliver personalized care that hinges on vast amounts of data and analyses, a robust security foundation is paramount. If your organization falls into this category, it is crucial to evaluate your security posture, data access points, storage systems, and disaster response strategies. Developing a comprehensive resilience plan that encompasses prevention, detection, mitigation, and recovery is essential. Ultimately, as healthcare leaders, our primary focus is on delivering the best possible care, which is unattainable without reliable, top-tier systems to support our efforts.
For additional insights related to career opportunities, check out this job posting. Furthermore, if you’re interested in employment law compliance, visit SHRM for authoritative guidance. For anyone starting their journey, this resource is an excellent starting point.
Leave a Reply