SBJ Article: Tech investments, challenges garner focus at STC Squared - Industry leaders share cybersecurity concerns

The following article was written by Mike Cullinan, Springfield Business Journal Reporter, and posted online at SBJ.net:

The third year for an all-day technology conference and expo in Springfield drew a record turnout that featured a keynote panel discussion about challenges and opportunities in the tech industry.

Doug Pitt, co-owner of Pitt Technology Group LLC, served as the keynote panel moderator at STC Squared, held March 27 and hosted by the Springfield Tech Council, and was joined on stage by Ryan Stack, chief information officer at SRC Holdings Corp.; Cheryl Hertel, vice president and chief information officer for CoxHealth; and Hal Higdon, chancellor of Ozarks Technical Community College.

When it comes to cybersecurity, Hertel said every organization struggles. For CoxHealth, one of its biggest challenges is dealing with the aftermath of attacks on systems run by other organizations that they integrate in their system and depend on daily. For example, she said Change Healthcare, a unit of UnitedHealth Group, was a recent victim of a cyberattack.

“It’s a piece of software that we rely on to do effective billing for patient care and to provide high-cost prescriptions, really important prescriptions for patients that need those,” she said.

Staying vigilant
CoxHealth is vigilant about cyberattacks, Hertel said, noting the organization works to keep systems updated to repel any attempts by hackers. Still, concerns persist about the security measures taken by outside vendors.

“When those systems are attacked, we have to be ready with a process to be able to really quickly accommodate for those attacks,” she said, “not just protecting our own systems but worrying about all of the other systems that are going to be impacted.”

Cybersecurity is a popular area of educational focus at OTC, Higdon said. In fact, he said the program can’t accept additional students until more faculty can be hired.

“To find somebody to teach it, you’ve got to pay them so much more than they were making working in the field,” he said.

Median pay for information security analysts in 2022 was $53.85 per hour, equating to $112,000 annually, according to the most recent U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

Higdon said OTC has people attack its system by wanting to fill out fake student applications to obtain .edu email addresses, which are used as a form of enrollment fraud.

“We made the decision when I came here 18 years ago to no longer charge for applications,” he said. “Now the IT [department] wants us to start charging for applications because if you have a nominal fee, they won’t fill it out and we’ll save 800 people trying to hit our system every day. That’s low security, but it’s a nuisance.”

Stack said he’s worried about computer users who inadvertently click on links in emails that could lead to attacks. He said some hackers are phishing just to see what doors are open and who answers, adding it doesn’t cost them a penny.

“Once that program’s written, it’s out there and they’re out there on the other end just collecting,” he said. “It scares me.”

Making investments
Hertel said CoxHealth launched an investment last year in virtual support by installing technology in hospital rooms to enhance patient care. Health system officials last year said the investment was roughly $10 million to add the technology to every inpatient intensive care unit and medical-surgical patient room at Cox South Hospital and Cox Medical Center Branson, among other CoxHealth facilities, according to past Springfield Business Journal reporting. The virtual care team is made up of employees including nurses, hospitalists, pharmacists and respiratory therapists who can monitor patients virtually and connect with them via cameras in their rooms. The employees work closely with the bedside team to support the patient’s needs.

“Remote care, virtual care, has really become front and center for us,” she said.

Multimillion-dollar equipment investments also have been made in recent months at Mercy Springfield Communities, said BJ Roberts, chief financial officer. The health system recently purchased equipment for radiation oncology, a Radixact unit, which was a roughly $4.7 million expenditure.

“It helps identify the specific cancer, the tumor, in our patients and provide the dose of radiation needed to that exact location without affecting some of the healthy tissue surrounding the tumor,” he said. 

Additionally, Mercy continued its investment in CyberKnife, a robotic radiotherapy device that also is a nonsurgical treatment option for cancer patients.

“We actually have had this technology for several years, but we upgraded to the latest model of that equipment just within the last few months,” he said, noting the purchase was $5.8 million. “We’re actually the only provider in southern Missouri that has this technology.”

Roberts said Mercy also is in the process of upgrading its telemetry monitoring technology, a $1.9 million project that is expected to be completed by May.

“All of these improvements in technology that we’re making, No. 1, it improves the care for our patients,” he said. “No. 2, it improves the efficiency for not only our providers and co-workers, but it helps with that patient experience because there’s better care and fewer delays.”

Higdon said during the panel discussion that OTC has used the Canvas learning management system for teaching, even predating the COVID-19 pandemic.

“When COVID hit, we were able to already communicate with our students,” he said. “Even in-person students, they knew how to interact through the Canvas module.”

Over at Missouri State University, Jeff Coiner, the school’s chief information officer, said it has been using Cloud-based Blackboard Learn for the past several years. However, feedback MSU received from its faculty members has led the university to invest in a new learning management system.

“We have since made an investment to move away from Blackboard, and that’s something we’ve been working on for about the last year. It’s a new learning management system called Brightspace,” he said, adding the cost is roughly $1.5 million over a five-year contract. “Our West Plains campus went fully live with that this semester, and we have a few early adopters here in Springfield that are teaching on that platform. Then we’ll go fully live with that for the summer semester.”

TECH EVENT ATTRACTS OVER 650 ATTENDEES

More than two dozen presentations from speakers and panels on various aspects of technology, along with roughly 40 exhibitors comprised the STC Squared event organized by technology industry association Springfield Tech Council.

Topics included learning strategies to recruit and retain tech talent, managing workplace stress and navigating the future of information technology service management.

Springfield Tech Council Executive Director Emily Reed Buckmaster said registrations for the March 27 event reached just over 650.

“That’s a 25% increase over last year,” she said. “It’s just continuing to grow each year.”

Early discussions are in progress for the fourth-annual event, expected to take place in March 2025, again at DoubleTree.