Reaping the Benefits of the Digital Healthcare Revolution

The European healthcare system grapples with an ageing population, increasing pressure on public health budgets and rising costs, as well as acute shortages of healthcare workers post-Covid-19. Like in many other sectors, the pandemic was a catalyst for the digital transformation of healthcare, rapidly accelerating the adoption of telehealth and remote care solutions across Europe. In Ireland, for instance, the use of telemedicine has been multiplied by five since March 2020, with 20% of the population now interacting with healthcare providers through telehealth tools.

Whilst digitization enhances operational efficiency in hospitals and helps deliver better patient care, for example through faster or more accurate diagnoses, it also comes with risks. In recent years, we have seen a steep increase in cyber attacks on European hospitals. In reaction to these repeated attacks across the EU and beyond, the European Commission recently issued an Action Plan on the Cybersecurity of Hospitals and Healthcare Providers to propose national and European solutions to the challenge.

How can we ensure that digitization delivers maximum benefits for patients whilst fortifying the security and resilience of European healthcare systems?

In Cisco’s policy recommendations for connected healthcare in Europe, we focus on seven issues that are critical to the digital transformation of healthcare. In this blog, I’d like to zoom in on three central issues for more connected and resilient healthcare systems in Europe:  cybersecurity, digital skills and connectivity.

Addressing the Cybersecurity Challenge

The increase in cyber attacks on hospitals has been primarily driven by ransomware. These attacks can have life-threatening impact. In June last year, a ransomware attack impacting NHS England meant that hospitals were no longer able to quickly match patients to their correct blood type, which prompted the NHS to urge people with universal blood types to donate their blood.

Cybersecurity is a multi-faceted challenge in the healthcare sector, which requires a holistic response covering funding, skills and technology.

Patching and replacing legacy technology, devices and software is inhibited in acute care environments. As system downtime can prove catastrophic, and specialized legacy applications may not work on newer operating systems, too many hospitals choose to continue using digital devices running on outdated software. A short-term choice that represents a huge source of vulnerability and open doors to nefarious actors.

To address this issue, hospitals and healthcare providers should be incentivized to identify, mitigate risk and ultimately replace connected devices in their networks when they’ve reached end of life and are no longer covered by software updates. Conducting maturity assessments to identify actionable insights into vulnerabilities is a useful first step, as mentioned in the EU Action Plan.

In addition, European governments should introduce dedicated funding programs for hospital cybersecurity. The French CaRE plan, launched in December 2023 with a 250M Euros budget until 2025, has already demonstrated its necessity. In its first call in May 2024, it received 1,200 funding requests, and only 730 of them could be granted.

Equipping Healthcare Professionals with Digital Skills

Cyber hygiene is low in healthcare due to a lack of digital and cyber skills among medical staff. As pointed by ENISA, 40% of healthcare organizations don’t have security awareness programs for non-IT staff.

We urge Member States to set clear digital training standards tailored to each hospital role, based on specific skills required. All healthcare staff should complete standard cyber resilience training, whereas department heads should receive more advanced trainings. It’s crucial to allocate dedicated time to compulsory training, to ensure they aren’t sidelined.

The European Commission’s Action Plan addresses this skills gap and tasked ENISA with creating training modules for healthcare professionals. This is a welcome step, and Cisco will support national and European Skills initiatives for the healthcare sector. In the past three years alone, Cisco’s Networking Academy has trained over 250,000 Europeans in cybersecurity through free courses.

Connectivity: the Foundation of Digital Healthcare

As the European Commission considers a future Digital Networks Act, our paper also highlights the importance of advanced connectivity for digital healthcare.

With the surge of digital imaging, telehealth, and the growing deployment of IoT devices, hospitals increasingly need reliable, high-speed, high-capacity network connectivity.

Going forward, IoT advancements, the rise of augmented and virtual reality, and the adoption of these technologies across European healthcare facilities — think about immersive virtual anatomy visualization for doctors and medical students — will require high-quality wireless connectivity. To meet these demands, additional spectrum is essential: allocating the upper part of the 6GHz band for indoor Wi-Fi indoor and opening the 3.4-3.8 and 3.8-4.2 GHz bands for 5G private networks will be key.

Digital solutions have the power to profoundly transform European healthcare for the better. As our report highlights, these solutions can even be described as a “fourth utility” — alongside water, gas and electricity — revolutionizing patient care and enhancing hospital efficiency and sustainability.

With advanced secure digital tools, healthcare providers can deliver faster diagnoses, personalized treatments, and improved access to care, ultimately leading to healthier outcomes for all citizens. To make the most of this potential across the board, it’s crucial to set up the right policies.

Dive into our policy recommendations to harness the full force of the digital health revolution.

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