HHS shuffle aims to address cyberthreats, AI
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The Biden administration is overhauling its health IT bureaucracy to address the proliferation of cyberattacks on the sector and the growth of data and artificial intelligence in medical settings.
Why it matters: The goals include setting an AI policy and strategy for HHS and streamlining critical infrastructure protection within the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response, or ASPR, per a notice to be published in the Federal Register on Monday.
Details: National coordinator for health IT Micky Tripathi will become assistant secretary for technology policy and take added responsibility for policy development.
- Tripathi's team over the last three-and-a-half years focused on the adoption of electronic health records in hospitals and physician offices.
- A key program called 405(d) that's responsible for aligning health industry security practices will be folded into ASPR to advance what HHS calls "a one-stop-shop approach" to threats like denial-of-service attacks that are plaguing hospitals.
Catch up quick: The massive Change Healthcare cyberattack crippled big parts of U.S. health care and showed how industry contracting practices exposed even those providers who didn't have direct relationships with the claims processing giant.
- And the CrowdStrike internet meltdown underscored the sector's reliance on a few key technology companies to meet their IT needs.
- Meanwhile, the administration has struggled to keep pace with AI development in health care and been slow to identify what additional powers it needs to oversee medical devices enabled with AI.
What they're saying: "Cybersecurity, data and artificial intelligence are some of the most pressing issues facing the health care space today," Secretary Xavier Becerra said in a statement. "HHS must be agile, accountable and strategic to meet the needs of this moment."
