Siemens uses AI to boost medical device security

Siemens Healthineers is working on an AI-powered cybersecurity project to improve the patching of medical devices. The project, called SHIELD, aims to help hospital personnel understand the potential consequences of different patching strategies before making changes in a live environment.

The system will take into account both cybersecurity considerations and clinical factors, such as the impact on emergency services. Comaniciu, a representative from Siemens Healthineers, emphasized the importance of considering all clinical elements when deploying patches.

“If a patient has an emergency, I cannot stop that emergency,” Comaniciu said. “I have to really, really take into consideration all clinical elements.”

Using AI to Balance Cybersecurity and Patient Care

The project builds on Siemens Healthineers’ work developing an “operational twin” of a hospital, which uses large-scale simulations and AI-based agents to model hospital operations and support decision-making under dynamic conditions.

SHIELD extends this concept into cybersecurity, using a virtual hospital environment to evaluate potential patching strategies. The goal is to help hospital personnel make informed decisions about when to install a patch, how to minimize disruption to emergency services, and how a particular cybersecurity strategy could affect overall hospital operations and patient care.

The project aims to improve several stages of the cybersecurity process, from identifying vulnerabilities to remediation and patch deployment. Comaniciu said the ultimate goal is to improve substantially the timing in which patches are deployed, while maintaining the hospital’s ability to provide services.

Addressing Challenges in Healthcare Cybersecurity

Rural hospitals face additional challenges in healthcare cybersecurity due to limited resources and personnel. Comaniciu noted that differences exist between academic medical centers and rural hospitals in areas such as cybersecurity personnel, budgets, and IT staffing.

Siemens Healthineers is working with partners that serve underserved communities and rural hospitals, which could provide an avenue for applying the project’s work to organizations with limited resources. The SHIELD project is expected to run for three years, with the initial phase covering one year.

The project involves multiple teams addressing areas such as vulnerability detection, patch development, and cybersecurity expertise. Siemens Healthineers’ role is focused on developing the virtual hospital environment and conducting large-scale simulations to help determine effective strategies for deploying patches.

Comaniciu emphasized the importance of collaboration in the project’s success, saying that successful cooperation between teams is necessary for the overall program to be successful.

The project represents an opportunity to apply AI and supercomputing to a problem that directly affects healthcare delivery. The broader objective is to shorten the time between discovering a vulnerability, developing a remediation, and deciding how to deploy it, while minimizing disruption to hospital operations.

For Comaniciu, the project is about finding a balance between strengthening cybersecurity and preserving the continuity of care. This balance will be a central test of whether AI can play a larger role in helping hospitals manage increasingly complex technology environments.