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By Andrew Cole, President & CEO, EOCC
Since 1946, the East Orlando Chamber of Commerce (EOCC) has been committed to the growth and development of area businesses and the community. Serving an area more than 440 square miles, the EOCC serves communities East of the I-4 and along the Osceola County line encompassing the 650-acre health and life sciences park known as Lake Nona Medical City. The vision of Lake Nona's Medical City aligns closely with that of the East Orlando Chamber: Accelerate innovation and growth among business and healthcare institutions.
Lake Nona Medical City has become the home of leading hospitals, universities, research facilities and health science companies, not only advancing healthcare but creating jobs and bolstering the economy in our region. Tremendous growth and increased regulations affecting the healthcare industry elevates the need to achieve security compliance and data security. It is essential for providers to keep a secure level of compliance and measures to combat ever-evolving threats.
Looking to support these measures and the professionals in the field, the East Orlando Chamber developed OPTIC, Orlando's Professional Technology Innovative Collaborative, bringing together solution seekers and problem solvers to address the technology needs throughout Central Florida. Seeing the value of a strategically focused "tech-to-tech" council, Lake Nona Medical community partners, UCF, AdventHealth and Orlando Health quickly aligned to support the endeavor as founding members of the group.
Launching the first panel discussion early 2018, a distinguished panel of experts shed light on "Commercialization of Innovation," the key to entrepreneurial success. From there, the committee grew organically taking the focus to Cybersecurity with valuable information about the effects on the business, government, and healthcare community. As OPTIC evolves, we will expand Cybersecurity addressing Security Compliance from multiple aspects including auditing, regulations, and employee training to name a few. Now, you may ask, "How does this affect me and my practice?"
Compliance is the baseline that must be met, especially within a healthcare environment. Security and compliance must work hand in hand to ensure patient safety. One example of a failed system was the WannaCry ransomware attack in 2017, causing many medical devices to become encrypted resulting in a loss of function and a critical issue to patient safety. Imagine conducting surgery or a procedure on a patient and the medical device fails due to a virus or cyber-attack.
Considering U.S. health systems knocked out by WannaCry, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) strongly recommended a protocol within systems to update patches and reimage all infected devices. With key medical and academic institutes in Lake Nona, not to mention a strong number of independent doctors practicing in the area, having a strong protocol in place is essential to protect not only patient data but your practice.
Healthcare continues to be a lucrative target for hackers and, as we saw in 2018, threats continue to get more creative despite awareness among healthcare organizations. It will need more funding from the executive levels to protect your organization. Do not think you are at risk? Tell that to Missouri-based Blue Springs Family Care. They suffered a breach of 45,000 patient records after hackers hit them with a variety of malware including ransomware. It is a sobering reminder that your practice must plan and prepare for cyberattacks. According to Healthcare IT News, "Organizations that underinvest in cybersecurity will spend $408 per record from a data breach." For Blue Springs Family Care, this equates to a costly $18,360,000.
On January 18, the East Orlando Chamber presents OPTIC, a Compliance Security Briefing. During the Compliance Security Briefing, our panel of experts from Core & Main, Darden, Full Sail University, Leidos, and SafeFirst Partners, LLC will address important factors to consider when designing new technology compliance function; partnering with non-technical teams to understand the technical areas of compliance; and much more. Visit eocc.org for more information or to register for the session.
The East Orlando Chamber is thinking differently for its members and the Lake Nona community offering Health Benefits, Discounts, and igniting a Spark in your business. Check us out at eocc.org or give us a call at 407-277-5951.