The use of generative AI is being “highly explored” in healthcare and has great promise for a variety of applications, but it needs to be scrutinized closely, said Erik Decker, vice president and CISO of Intermountain Health and a cybersecurity adviser to the federal government.
“Our clinicians and nurses are looking at various use cases,” he said. “It has potential. But the thing I think people need to understand with AI is that it is not magic.”
AI deployments have to be tailored and modeled appropriately for each setting – and validated so that AI works correctly for that environment, he said in an interview with Information Security Media Group conducted at the recent HIMSS cyber forum in Boston.
“That takes time, resources and skills,” he said.
In this interview with Information Security Media Group (see audio link below photo), Decker also discussed:
- The importance of developing and fostering a “cybersecurity mindset” in healthcare – and why that’s so challenging for many organizations;
- Reducing cybersecurity friction with clinicians and other healthcare users;
- The ever-expanding cybersecurity requirements demanded by cyber insurers.
Decker leads cybersecurity at Intermountain Health, a multistate integrated delivery network based in Salt Lake City. He currently co-leads the Department of Health and Human Services’ advisory group of more than 250 industry and government experts across the U.S. tasked with implementing the Cybersecurity Act of 2015, 405D legislation, within the healthcare sector. Decker previously served as CISO and chief privacy officer at the University of Chicago Medicine.