The Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (AAMI) and the Archimedes Center for Medical Device Security will work together to connect their networks of medical device and health technology professionals across the country to advance medical device cybersecurity practices across the entire medical device lifecycle, according to an AAMI press release.
“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,” says Robert Burroughs, AAMI senior vice president of education. “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.”
AAMI is a nonprofit 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 brings 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.
Representatives at AAMI cite a growing focus on security across the medical devices industry as a major motivation behind the collaboration.
“There are a few things happening in the future that are really crucial for medical devices,” Burroughs said. “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 organizations intend to connect their membership and stakeholder networks to work on advancing security practices for these life-saving devices. Potential outcomes of this initiative include a standardized healthcare and medical device security curriculum for manufacturers and health delivery organizations.
"We appreciate how AAMI represents thousands of experts in healthcare technology, sterilization, and medical device manufacturing,” said University of Michigan Professor Kevin Fu, chief scientist and founder of the Archimedes Center. “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 organizations are considering additional joint activities to promote their overlapping work, including an annual innovation award for medical device security.
“In the end the goal is to increase awareness, improve education, and have influence across the industry,” said Sarah Peña, Archimedes senior operations and business development manager.
