Cleveland Clinic's CEO said that cyberattacks pose a significant threat to health systems due to insufficient security measures across various departments and a shortage of IT personnel in hospitals, Ideastream Public Media reported April 23.
Cleveland Clinic hosted the Cleveland Discovery and Innovation Forum April 23, where Tom Mihaljevic, MD, CEO and president of the organization, shared insights on AI and cybersecurity.
Dr. Mihaljevic stated that health systems are vulnerable to cyberattacks because many departments do not have enough security and hospitals tend to have too few IT staff.
Additionally, Dr. Mihaljevic shared insights on AI, saying the technology will dramatically reshape healthcare, but that may not be for some time.
Artificial intelligence's immediate potential, according to Dr. Mihaljevic, lies in enhancing efficiency as it can automate the entry and analysis of medical records, a task carried out by Cleveland Clinic staff.
"Our time ... is mostly used to enter data to try to retrieve data from the electronic medical record," he said. "There is actually incalculable amount of time that is being used to try to synthesize the data from a variety of different sources for patient benefit."
Dr. Mihaljevic mentioned that AI will eventually remove the necessity for Cleveland Clinic employees to perform data entry. However, he noted that these employees could transition into roles that offer more engaging opportunities.