Anatomy of a Cyberattack: Surviving a 25-Day Cyber Outage in Anatomic and Clinical Pathology Laboratories

Needs Statement

Pathologists, residents, fellows, and pathology assistants need to be updated on topics related to ancillary molecular or genomic testing and how it is increasingly impacting patient care across all medical specialties. To help guide testing and interpretation, pathologists must be knowledgeable about these new techniques and their clinical utility. Many currently practicing pathologists have been trained without any exposure to molecular or genomics testing and, hence, need education in these areas. Additionally, laboratories are required to balance competing demands of controlling costs (while maintaining or improving quality) and addressing the need for increased access to newer expensive technologies. It is necessary to educate pathologists to help develop effective test utilization strategies across the health care system.

Educational Objectives

At the conclusion of the session, the participants should be able to:

• Describe the scope of the cyber outage at the University of Vermont Medical Center, including the impact on computer systems in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine.
• Explain the major challenges during extensive cyber outage and identify potential mitigation plans to prepare for a prolonged downtime in the laboratory.
• Demonstrate the importance of an incident command structure and robust methods of clear 2-way communication during a crisis.
• Recognize the key components of cybersecurity in everyday practice and become a security advocate.

Target Audience

Accreditation/Credit Designation

Baylor College of Medicine is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) to provide continuing medical education for physicians.

Baylor College of Medicine designates this enduring material activity for a maximum of 1.0 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™.  Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

Disclosure Policy

Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) to provide continuing medical education (CME) for physicians. BCM is committed to sponsoring CE activities that are scientifically based, accurate, current, and objectively presented.

In accordance with the ACCME Standards for Commercial Support, BCM has implemented a mechanism requiring everyone in a position to control the content of an educational activity (i.e., directors, planning committee members, faculty) to disclose any relevant financial relationships with commercial interests (drug/device companies) and manage/resolve any conflicts of interest prior to the activity. Individuals must disclose to participants the existence or non-existence of financial relationships at the time of the activity or within 24 months prior.

In addition, BCM has requested activity faculty/presenters to disclose to participants any unlabeled use or investigational use of pharmaceutical/device products; to use scientific or generic names (not trade names) in referring to products; and, if necessary to use a trade name, to use the names of similar products or those within a class. Faculty/presenters have also been requested to adhere to the ACCME's validation of clinical content statements.

BCM does not view the existence of financial relationships with commercial interests as implying bias or decreasing the value of a presentation. It is up to participants to determine whether the relationships influence the activity faculty with regard to exposition or conclusions. If at any time during this activity you feel that there has been commercial/promotional bias, notify the Activity Director or Activity Coordinator. Please answer the questions about balance and objectivity in the activity evaluation candidly.

All of the relevant financial relationships listed for these individuals have been mitigated.