A survey of more than 300 professionals indicates that cybersecurity is a top concern as technical teams struggle with system complexity.
Nearly 85% of healthcare organizations experience periodic network disruptions that impact patient care and privacy, according to a new research report from Nile.
The report, titled “The State of Networking, Security & AI in Healthcare,” surveyed more than 300 information technology leaders, executives, and security practitioners across the global healthcare sector. The findings suggest that many healthcare networks have outgrown their existing architectures, resulting in a distributed ecosystem of hospitals and clinics connected by tens of thousands of medical and internet of things devices that often reside on the same network as electronic health records.
The survey found that 66% of healthcare information technology teams are currently strained or “firefighting,” with only 18% reporting they are comfortably managing network operations. According to the report, even fully staffed teams face these challenges, indicating that the complexity of the network environment is a primary driver of operational strain rather than headcount alone.
Cybersecurity threats and ransomware are the most cited network challenges at 27%, followed by staffing shortages and a lack of expertise at 23%. Other concerns include rising operational and compliance costs at 20%, network reliability affecting clinical systems at 16%, and aging or fragmented infrastructure at 15%.
Disruptions to clinical systems have become a regular occurrence for many organizations. Approximately 38% of respondents reported being impacted by network or security disruptions at least weekly. These issues directly affect access to electronic health records, patient monitoring, imaging workflows, and connected care.
“In healthcare, the network is the lifeblood of patient care. When it falters, both patient care and patient privacy are put at risk,” says Shashi Kiran, chief marketing officer of Nile, in a release. “This report shows that these challenges are no longer separate problems to be solved independently; they are deeply interconnected. Healthcare needs a new architectural philosophy, where security and simplicity are built in, and where lean IT teams can focus on patient care rather than daily firefighting.”
The report also highlights a confidence gap regarding the containment of cyber incidents. Only 20% of organizations expressed confidence that their network could contain an incident across a mix of medical, clinician, and guest devices. Furthermore, while many organizations expressed intent to adopt security measures, only 38% reported partial or full implementation of Zero Trust architectures, while 26% of organizations have no concrete plans despite being aware of the framework.
Interest in new operational models is growing, with 64% of healthcare organizations indicating they are open to adopting a networking-as-a-service model to simplify operations and strengthen security. Additionally, 20% of respondents now consider artificial intelligence-driven automation essential to running their networks.
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