CynergisTek Sees Increased Demand for Medical Device Security Services in First Year of Deployment

AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- CynergisTek, Inc., (NYSE AMERICAN: CTEK), a leader in healthcare cybersecurity, privacy, and compliance, today announced that it has experienced significant market demand with Medical Device Security Service customer wins at leading health systems since launching the service in late 2018. Sixty percent of the contracts were existing Compliance Assist Partner Program (CAPP) clients that expanded their relationship with CynergisTek to add ongoing Medical Device Security Service engagements.

In a recent survey, nearly one-third of healthcare executives reported that medical device security is one of the top five cyber risks facing healthcare today, however the majority also reported not having an effective (or any) strategy in place to assess the risks posed by medical devices. This is often due to the organization’s lack of internal resources, leaving the cyber threat to hospital operations and patient safety at an all-time high. It is for this reason that multiple leading health systems, including Banner Health, one of the largest nonprofit healthcare systems in the U.S., and Gwinnett Medical Center, one of the largest healthcare networks in Atlanta and nationally recognized for clinical excellence, have turned to CynergisTek’s Medical Device Security Service to help address security vulnerabilities by developing and managing a security strategy around its devices.

“CynergisTek has been a valuable resource for us, helping to ensure our medical devices are protected from security threats,” said Priyanka Upendra, Quality & Compliance Program Director, Technology Management/ENTECH at Banner Health. “A fundamental benefit to the Medical Device Security Service is having a team of skilled professionals that act as the liaison between our Banner teams, delivering seamless coordination, collaboration, and communication. It also serves as an extra set of eyes to oversee critical, constantly evolving elements in our health care operations.”

CynergisTek’s Medical Device Managed Services address the security of the entire medical device lifecycle, including policy development, pre-acquisition procedures, implementation and security control setup, identifying and reporting vulnerabilities and coordinating remediation in conjunction with the device maintenance schedule. CynergisTek’s team of security experts act as advisors, providing a comprehensive view of the system and a systematic approach to address issues or concerns during any part of the lifecycle process, whether that be alerts of a critical recall or performing risk assessments of the device and manufacturer during vendor selection.

“As the networked medical device footprint expands in healthcare, so does the probability of catastrophic implications for patient safety and hospital operations, which is why it is so critical that providers develop and execute strong programs for managing the security of these devices,” said David Finn, Executive Vice President of Strategic Innovation at CynergisTek. “The response from the industry for our service shows the growing need for a trusted partner to help manage this type of security. We’re proud to work with organizations like Banner Health and Gwinnett Medical Center that are prioritizing medical device security as part of their overall security structure in order to best protect clinical processes and care.”

CynergisTek offers a comprehensive set of medical device services to ensure security best practices for the planning, implementation, and ongoing maintenance of an organization’s biomedical device lifecycle management program. From device acquisition to retirement, CynergisTek’s managed service program provides services to support program implementation and optimization activities as well as ongoing support to ensure a continued focus on addressing new biomedical device vulnerabilities and risks as they are discovered.

About CynergisTek, Inc.

CynergisTek is a top-ranked cybersecurity, privacy, and compliance management consulting firm dedicated to serving the healthcare industry. CynergisTek offers specialized services and solutions to help organizations achieve privacy, security, and compliance goals. Since 2004, the company has served as a partner to hundreds of healthcare organizations and is dedicated to supporting and educating the industry by contributing to relevant industry associations. The company has been named in numerous research reports as one of the top firms that provider organizations turn to for privacy and security and won the 2017 Best in KLAS award for Cyber Security Advisory Services.

Forward-Looking Statements

This release contains certain forward-looking statements relating to the business of CynergisTek that can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as “believes,” “expects,” “anticipates,” “may” or similar expressions. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, including uncertainties relating to product/service development, long and uncertain sales cycles, the ability to obtain or maintain patent or other proprietary intellectual property protection, market acceptance, future capital requirements, competition from other providers, the ability of our vendors to continue supplying the company with equipment, parts, supplies and services at comparable terms and prices and other factors that may cause actual results to be materially different from those described herein as anticipated, believed, estimated or expected. Certain of these risks and uncertainties are or will be described in greater detail in our Form 10-K and Form 10-Q filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which are available at http://www.sec.gov. CynergisTek is under no obligation (and expressly disclaims any such obligation) to update or alter its forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

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