The U.S. Food and Drug Administration released a new video, “Tips for Clinicians - Keeping Your Patients’ Connected Medical Devices Safe” to help clinicians discuss cybersecurity of connected medical devices with patients. These tips focus on communicating with patients and aim to increase clinician comfort in approaching this topic.
All legally marketed medical devices have benefits and risks. The FDA clears, authorizes, and approves devices to be marketed when there is a reasonable assurance that the devices are safe and effective for their intended use.
Medical devices are increasingly connected to the Internet, hospital networks, and other medical devices to provide features that improve health care and increase the ability of healthcare providers to treat patients. These same features also increase potential cybersecurity risks. Medical devices, like other computer systems, can be vulnerable to security breaches, potentially impacting the safety and effectiveness of the device.
