To help strengthen the health ecosystem's overall incident response preparedness, the Health Sector Coordinating Council in coordination with the Health Information Sharing and Analysis Center will in July host a first-ever nationwide virtual cyber exercise, said Greg Garcia, of the HSCC.

Many healthcare sector organizations are delaying to even begin contemplating - let alone strategizing - how to mitigate post-quantum risk - but procrastination is a major mistake, said Ali Youssef, director of emerging tech security, at Henry Ford Health.

Tools that could help healthcare providers - regardless of size - to prioritize their medical device vulnerability management is where artificial intelligence could make a significant impact, said David Brumley, chief AI and science officer at security firm Bugcrowd.

Healthcare CISOs and their teams often contemplate the benefits of going passwordless in their organizations but face pushback from clinicians concerned that the new tech will slow down their access to critical patient care systems or disrupt their workflow.

What often appears to be turf wars between healthcare technology management, facilities OT staff, IT departments and security teams are often the result of unclear ownership and accountability for device security. And that presents safety risks to patients, says Mohammed Waqas, CTO of Armis.

AI chatbots rank as the number-one health tech hazard in 2026, followed by "digital darkness" and legacy medical device cyber issues, said Rob Schluth and Scott Luney, technology and security experts at patient safety group ECRI Institute, which compiles an annual top 10 list. They explained why.

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Attackers that want to use artificial intelligence tools to build ransomware or help run their cyber operations risk getting much less than they bargained for, said security expert Candid Wuest, in part because they'll still rely on known tactics that can be readily spotted and blocked.

As the compliance deadline quickly approaches for changes to align the federal rules for the confidentiality of substance use disorder records with HIPAA, entities that participate in so-called Part 2 programs still face critical unanswered questions, said attorney Aleksandra Vold of BakerHostetler.

Artificial intelligence use in healthcare is only as safe and accurate as the governance and trust frameworks surrounding it, particularly in clinical environments where errors or hallucinations can directly impact patient care, said Dave Bailey, vice president at consultancy Clearwater.