NEWS
ARMIS IDENTIFIES THE RISKIEST MEDICAL AND IOT DEVICES IN CLINICAL ENVIRONMENTS
Armis , a leading asset visibility and security company , has released new research identifying the top connected medical and IoT devices that are exposed to malicious activity in clinical environments .
Data analysed from the Armis Asset Intelligence and Security Platform – which tracks over three billion assets – found nurse call systems to be the riskiest IoMT device , followed by infusion pumps and medication dispensing systems . When looking at IoT devices , IP cameras , printers and Voice Over Internet Protocol ( VoIP ) devices are topping the list .
By 2026 smart hospitals are expected to deploy over 7 million IoMT devices – doubling the amount from 2021 .
Medical and non-medical devices are increasingly connected , automatically feeding patient data from monitoring devices into electronic records .
These connections and communications within a medical environment help improve patient care but also make it increasingly vulnerable to cyberattacks , which could result in the interruption of patient care .
“ These numbers are a strong indicator of the challenges faced by healthcare organisations globally . Advances in technology are essential to improve the speed and quality of care delivery as the industry is challenged with a shortage of care providers , but with increasingly connected care comes a bigger attack surface ,” said Mohammad Waqas , Principal Solutions Architect for Healthcare at Armis .
“ Protecting every type of connected device , medical , IoT , even the building management systems , with full visibility and continuous contextualised monitoring is a key element to ensuring patient safety .”
PIONEERING MICROFLUIDICS TECHNOLOGIES TO TREAT PREGNANT POPULATIONS
A research group at the University of Manitoba is using microfluidics technologies from Dolomite Microfluidics to design and evaluate novel nanoparticle drug delivery systems for the safe and effective treatment of diseases during pregnancy . The laboratory has developed an innovative microfluidics model to mimic the structure of the placenta and is using this system to assess the potential of new nanoparticle-based therapies for serious congenital diseases , such as diaphragmatic hernia . of nanotechnology for the precise delivery of microRNA therapies in pregnancy .”
Implementing microfluidics technologies has helped the researchers to replicate the unique physiology and pharmacology of the placenta .
“ A woman ’ s placenta differs from that of other species and changes dynamically throughout pregnancy ,” added Hagar . “ To develop safe and effective therapeutics , we must therefore focus not only on drug development but also on developing a model that replicates the gestational environment . We use microfluidics chips to culture placental cells and matrices on a microscale , creating a dynamic model that allows us to investigate how nanoparticle medicines interact with this biological barrier .”
Nanomedicines have huge potential for prenatal therapeutics because nanoparticles can be engineered to selectively target maternal or fetal tissues .
Dr Hagar Labouta , Assistant Professor in the College of Pharmacy at the University of Manitoba , said : “ The efficacy of nanoparticle systems for targeted drug delivery has already been demonstrated in a wide range of infectious diseases and cancers , but its use in pregnant populations has been limited . We are pioneering the use
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