A new set of artificial intelligence and zero trust integrations in the Crowdstrike Falcon cybersecurity platform could improve detection and response capabilities across users, devices and applications connected in the cloud, according to an announcement Tuesday from Zscaler.

Also this week: Oracle released a series of updates that enhance views of critical patient data, mobile charting capabilities and medication safety processes in electronic health records. And Suki AI said 12 new health systems using Meditech will now have access to its clinical ambient documentation assistant. On the care management front, Innovaccer launched a copilot it says can help increase patient access while reducing cost.

Zscaler integrates with Crowdstrike

Under constant pressure to assess and manage risks and detect and respond to threats, security operations centers are hampered by siloed data streams that complicate surveillance operations and slow them down.

Through a collaboration between CrowdStrike and ZScaler, a zero trust exchange platform for cloud modernization, new features in Falcon support SOC efforts to coordinate threat information and expand insights into vulnerabilities and exposures across an enterprise, the company said in a statement.

The new tools help organizations running Falcon to advance zero trust enforcement from endpoint to application, which could help healthcare organizations enhance data protection and improve HIPAA compliance, Zscaler said.

The integrations can "ease day-to-day work streams for IT security and SOC teams," said Punit Minocha, Zscaler's executive vice president of business development and corporate strategy, in a statement.

Mutual customers can leverage prebuilt scripts for threat-intelligence sharing and quickly build custom workflows, like risk analysis tools that pull in rich incident, asset and vulnerability data from the Falcon platform or correlate common vulnerabilities and exposure data.

Zscaler also noted that active security incident signals from the Falcon platform improve its Adaptive Access Engine to better coordinate threat information, enhance policy enforcement and better secure device access control.

"Organizations must transform the SOC by harnessing the power of AI and automation to eliminate blind spots and stop adversaries," added Daniel Bernard, chief business officer at CrowdStrike.

CrowdStrike also announced Monday that it is partnering with Amazon Web Services and NVIDIA to launch its second annual Cybersecurity Startup Accelerator to support the next generation of AI and cloud security startups.

"For startups seeking to tackle the most pressing security challenges, the Cybersecurity Startup Accelerator provides the AI technologies, accelerated computing resources and technical expertise they need," Bartley Richardson, director of cybersecurity engineering at NVIDIA, said in CrowdStrike's announcement.

In July, the security tech giant triggered a worldwide IT outage with a flawed security update for Microsoft Windows, which was regarded as one of the worst information-technology disasters in history. It disrupted healthcare operations around the globe. It took some organizations days to recover – others, weeks.

Adam Meyers, senior vice president of counter adversary operations, is due before a Congressional Homeland Security subcommittee on September 24 to discuss the incident, and also how growing reliance on interconnected IT systems has expanded the risk surface for organizations.

Oracle updates target productivity, safety

On Wednesday, Oracle announced improved healthcare data exchange along with simpler workflows through greater data access in Oracle Health Seamless Exchange through the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement along with a suite of new EHR enhancements.

"Since the Cerner acquisition, Oracle has invested tens of thousands of engineering hours and millions of dollars to enhance our core clinical applications and improve the performance, usability and security of our EHR," Seema Verma, executive vice president and general manager of Oracle Health and Life Sciences, said in a statement.

The company said it worked closely with customers on user-friendly improvements that enhance clinical decision-making. The updates include:

• Streamlined chart reviews to quickly surface critical patient information.
• Advanced documentation tools that support updates and consultations.
• New medication processes that help identify errors to increase safety.
• Updated order management capabilities with closed-loop tracking.
• Near real-time mobile charting capabilities.

Also, Oracle Health Ambulatory Referral Management users will be able to view and track patient referrals in the Oracle Health Provider Portal, thus helping to decrease the time from referral creation to an appointment being scheduled, the company said. Earlier this year, Oracle launched a mobile clinical decision assistant tool combining generative AI, clinical intelligence and a multimodal voice and touch-based interface, to ambulatory clinics.

The new patient record features in Oracle Health products will be rolled out quarterly, the company said in a statement. 

Meditech, Innovaccer add more AI copilots

Meditech, the latest in a string of health tech vendors, like Cerner, Epic and Athena and Amwell, to integrate the Suki Assistant is deploying the ambient documentation technology to 12 health systems, according to an announcement from Suki AI on Thursday. The self-updating ambient voice documentation software is also used by group practices and rural providers. 

Suki said it began collaborating with Meditech last year to address its customers' administrative burdens and their staff's work-life balance. The EHR vendor said it integrated Nuance's DAX copilot earlier this year.

St. Mary’s Healthcare outside of Albany began using the Suki AI assistant for EHR documentation on Meditech Expanse earlier this year to reduce clinician burdens and increase clinical note quality. 

The provider's first cohort of users reduced the time to note completion by 50%, the company said.

"Ambient listening has demonstrated it can help us achieve both these goals – our clinicians who use Suki tell us not only are they experiencing significantly less administrative burden, they are able to engage with their patients in a deeper way," said Julie Demaree, St. Mary’s Hospital executive director of clinical innovation and transformation, in a statement. 

Using the AI assistant has also improved the detail in clinician notes, added Natasha Struewing, a nurse practitioner at Decatur County Memorial Hospital in Greensburg, Indiana, another of the hospitals deploying the AI-documentation assistant across its enterprise. 

"As a critical access hospital, the number of patients who seek care on any given day can vary widely," she said. "With Suki, I can see more acute patients and provide the care they need in a timely fashion, which is essential in achieving the best outcomes possible."

Last week, Innovaccer announced that it had added Sara, its AI assistant, to its care management platform. 

The new Care Management Copilot automates documentation, patient summaries and care plan recommendations, thereby saving care managers more than 10 hours per week, according to the company. That has allowed them to spend more time with patients and engage with 30-40% more patients, the company said.

In addition to documenting patient interactions and synchronizing care documentation with leading EHRs, the new AI copilot for care managers generates patient summaries that can help them understand patient status in the continuum of care. Sara also identifies care barriers and urgent red flags and recommends next steps, the company said.

AI enables a holistic approach to care planning that integrates nursing and social work perspectives and reduces costs, according to Malcolm Smith, an advanced clinical education expert at Dignity Health MSO. 

"We can now prioritize needs more effectively, ensuring cost-effective, appropriate care."

Andrea Fox is senior editor of Healthcare IT News.
Email: afox@himss.org
Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS Media publication.

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