UEM automation for healthcare: Just what the IT doctor ordered

IT admins at healthcare organizations deal with many of the same day-to-day challenges that their colleagues in other business sectors do. While the demands of managing hardware and software, distributing updates and patches, monitoring system reliability, and integrating diverse devices are similar, they also differ due to the unique operating conditions and requirements of the healthcare industry:

• Compliance with strict data protection and privacy regulations such as HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act).
• Highly sensitive patient and financial data that is frequently targeted by cybercriminals for damaging ransomware attacks. 
• A reliance on legacy systems and medical devices which may lack updates or are incompatible with modern security protocols.
• Incomplete network visibility for clinical systems
• Frequent provisioning and re-provisioning of devices for travel nurses and other visiting clinicians.
• Increasing use of personal mobile devices in patient care.
• Multiple connections to external third-party suppliers and partners.
• Accelerating adoption of new telehealth, remote patient monitoring, AI, interoperability and data sharing technologies.
• Financial pressures and a lack of qualified IT staff.
• A user base with high expectations for system reliability and low tolerance of downtime for IT maintenance.

Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) systems such as the baramundi Management Suite (bMS) provide significant advantages for healthcare IT admins by enabling them to automate device management tasks and set and enforce consistent security policies for all devices and locations from a centralized and intuitive admin interface. Automation also makes it possible even for small IT teams to handle multiple routine tasks while freeing time for optimizing system uptime and reliability and high-priority digital transformation projects. That’s increasingly important given the shortage of qualified IT personnel, the accelerating deployment of telehealth, patient engagement and AI solutions, and the growing importance of system interoperability and secure data-sharing initiatives.

A core feature of the bMS is intuitive drag-and-drop scripting that makes it easy to automate nearly every routine endpoint maintenance task, especially distribution of updates for current and legacy versions of Windows and patches for third-party software packages. IT admins can even automate deployment of updates for specialized and other software packages for which vendors did not provide automated installers. The timing and scope of updates can be precisely defined to minimize or avoid user interruptions. In addition, self-service kiosks can be set up with pre-configured software that users can install as needed.

As part of a multi-layered security strategy, the bMS provides comprehensive vulnerability scanning, centralized control of Windows data encryption and antivirus software, and regular IT asset inventory updates. Up-to-date and accurate inventories significantly improve network visibility for non-standard medical devices. Automatic inventories also make it much easier to identify systems needing updates, to reduce spending on underutilized assets, and to detect and remove unauthorized hardware and software.

UEM solutions integrate mobile device management tools such as containerization, remote wiping and app block and allow lists that are essential for enabling clinicians to use personal devices to access electronic health records (EHRs) while maintaining privacy and security. Newer versions of the bMS also address increasing device diversity with tools for managing specialized devices using the Linux OS.