AAMI and MedCrypt Establish Cybersecurity Visionary Award

Cybersecurity represents one of the most significant—and increasingly dangerous—challenges facing the health technology community. That’s why AAMI and proactive medical device cybersecurity innovator MedCrypt are establishing a new award focused on recognizing and encouraging leaders in the emerging medical device cybersecurity space: the AAMI & MedCrypt Cybersecurity Visionary Award.

“AAMI and AAMI Foundation Awards recognize those who are working to improve patient safety and push the boundaries of health technology. But until now, we haven’t offered an award specific to those working in the increasingly critical area of cybersecurity. That’s why we’re thrilled to announce the launch of the AAMI & MedCrypt Cybersecurity Visionary Award, an award program that recognizes cyber defenders who are innovating every day to keep health technology safe,” said MaryJane Thomas, senior director of membership development at AAMI. “Thank you to MedCrypt for their generous support of this award!”

The AAMI and MedCrypt Cybersecurity Visionary Award recognizes an individual who has demonstrated the vision and leadership necessary to solve some of the industry’s most critical medical device cybersecurity challenges. This individual’s contributions will have moved the industry forward, leading to improvements in our collective cybersecurity posture while continuing to ensure patient safety. Thanks to the generous support of MedCrypt, this award includes a plaque and a $2,000 check, to be presented at the annual AAMI eXchange.

“MedCrypt and AAMI recognize the importance of cybersecurity in healthcare, but also the imperative for progress so that we, the cybersecurity professionals, can help protect the industry that protects lives. We have our work cut out for us and are dependent on cybersecurity leaders to solve the hard and complex problems we are facing.” said Axel Wirth, chief security strategist at MedCrypt. “With this award, AAMI and MedCrypt have taken an important step to advance the recognition of cybersecurity champions and, by extension, their mission to make this a more secure and therefore safer industry. But also, through this recognition, we hope to provide public visibility to the cybersecurity topic and thus inspire future leaders.”

Nominations for this award are open now at www.aami.org/awards. Nominators should include evidence of achievements that substantiate the candidate’s qualifications, as well as two letters of support.

Candidates must demonstrate:

• Leadership by identifying the larger challenges and mapping out a path on how to address them.
• Strategic thinking and leadership among stakeholders in the medical device cybersecurity risk management space, combined with the ability to execute tactically on specific challenges.
• The ability to work across stakeholders and constituencies in government, care delivery, security research, academia, and manufacturing.
• Evidence provided through:
• A body of work that reflects consistent and substantial contributions in reducing medical device cybersecurity risks
• Breakthrough accomplishment(s) that substantially improve(s) critical aspects of the industry’s cybersecurity posture
• Proposed solutions that blaze a way forward to reduce the identified risks

Candidates should demonstrate:

• The ability to elevate the industry through research, education, publication, practice and/or mentorship.
• Evidence of leadership in the development of medical device cybersecurity risk management standards, guidances, and best practices.
• Success within real world constraints and scaling of solutions that are implementable and lead to steady progress. 

For more information about AAMI and AAMI Foundation award programs, visit www.aami.org/awards.