PICTURE this: A 78-year-old man collapses in his flat at 2 am. His daughter calls for an ambulance. Paramedics arrive fast, and what helps them move faster is what they can see on their devices: his medications, allergies and recent test results, pulled up in seconds. In the emergency room, decision-support tools flag a drug interaction before it becomes a mistake.
Now imagine the same moment, except the record is unavailable because a connected provider has been hacked. Doctors work off information fragments. His family scrambles to recall details. Care slows. Although hypothetical, this situation reveals how cybersecurity could directly affect patient safety.
