Donna Hart, HITS Communications

You can reach Donna at donnahar@med.umich.edu.

Profiles in IT: Mike Marable—Microsoft magician

Mike Marable is the operating system (OS) deployment architect and a senior engineer for the Configuration Manager group at Michigan Medicine, leading Microsoft systems engineering for Health Information Technology & Services (HITS). He has been invited to speak this May at the annual Midwest Management Summit (MMS), an international technical conference where systems management professionals come from all… Read More »

Michigan Medicine employees get new cybersecurity reminders

Starting in January, the Information Assurance Michigan Medicine Education & Awareness Program began publishing monthly IT security awareness reminders titled “Cyber Safety — Review in 2.” The campaign’s goal is to increase awareness of key cybersecurity topics by presenting important information that can be reviewed in two minutes or less. To encourage the Michigan Medicine workforce to learn more about… Read More »

Protecting medical devices from cybersecurity threats

Medical devices capable of transmitting health information and connecting to Michigan Medicine’s networks offer improvements to the effective delivery of patient care, but they also may introduce privacy and security concerns. Michigan Medicine’s Information Assurance (IA) program has been raising awareness of these concerns and developing new approaches to address these vulnerabilities. As a major step, Michigan Medicine… Read More »

Skype for Business rolls out to Michigan Medicine

  In November, Skype for Business “dial-in conferencing” became available to all of Michigan Medicine as the organization’s primary business communication tool for audio/video conferencing. This feature enables users to set up or join an online conference directly through their Outlook calendars. Additional contact, support, and PIN information is included in meeting invites so users can now invite… Read More »

Device rationalization for Michigan Medicine

Michigan Medicine has flagged around 4,000 general computing devices (laptops and desktop workstations) that are in use for under 60 minutes a day. They represents roughly ten percent of the entire hardware fleet. If even half of these low use, non-critical devices can be removed from the environment, Michigan Medicine will be able to save more than $1.4… Read More »

HITS: Windows 10 is on a roll

Health Information Technology & Services (HITS) continues to migrate Windows devices throughout Michigan Medicine on a rolling basis, location by location, with great success. The department has currently upgraded over 12,000 devices from Windows 7 to Windows 10 — about a third of the overall Windows fleet. With this upgrade, users are also getting the latest versions of some of… Read More »

HITS implements 30-day network policy

The institutionally owned devices we use to do our work are kept secure by connecting regularly to the internal U-M network. Connecting ensures that our devices receive the patches and anti-virus protection that are typically installed automatically and daily whenever we are logged in. Effective August 16, 2018, Health Information Technology & Services (HITS) will implement a policy… Read More »

Michigan Medicine upgrading to Windows 10

Microsoft recently announced that it will be ending its support of Windows 7 — the operating system (OS) on most Michigan Medicine CoreImage devices. To get a step ahead of the transition, Health Information Technology & Services (HITS) has already begun to migrate CoreImage PCs to the Windows 10 operating system in several locations. There are more than 36,000… Read More »

Helping you to find the phish

Following successful pilots within the departments of Pathology and Family Medicine to identify and report simulated phishing emails, Information Assurance (IA) and Health Information Technology & Services (HITS) are gearing up to conduct a phased, anti-phishing educational awareness campaign throughout all of Michigan Medicine. HITS staff will be the initial target group to receive a series of simulated… Read More »

Michigan Medicine completes NAC project

Michigan Medicine recently achieved a significant goal of ensuring that 100 percent of all devices connecting to its internal network by wire are accounted for, categorized by device type, and secured with the necessary protocols required to protect two-way communication from cyberattacks. A program to enhance network security and identify all electronic equipment connecting to Michigan Medicine internal resources… Read More »

Michigan Medicine keeps smartphones smart… and secure

For nearly a year, Michigan Medicine has used AirWatch to provide the required encryption and information assurance necessary to safely access secure internal resources on smartphones, tablets, and laptops. The organization’s policy requires staff to enroll personally owned devices in AirWatch if they are used to access the internal wireless network or share sensitive healthcare information. Health Information Technology & Services… Read More »

Michigan Medicine IT security projects

IT security is an ongoing priority for Michigan Medicine. Currently, several projects are focused on enhancements and upgrades to ensure the security of patient and personal data and services. Find out more about the following: Enterprise Identity and Access Management (EIAM) Program Network Admission Control (NAC) for the Wireless and Wired Networks Skype for Business mobile – Secure… Read More »

Making improvements to accounts and access processes

“To best support the collaborative work of our faculty, staff, and students, we must make their identity, roles, and access seamless as they move within multiple areas of U-M,” said Andrew Rosenberg, M.D., chief information officer for Michigan Medicine. “Our current methods rely on dozens of poorly connected IT systems,” he added. “Centralizing these activities in terms of… Read More »

Wireless network update a success – what’s next?

In April, the Michigan Medicine community came together to achieve a significant goal – namely to ensure that enhanced security protocols were in place on all wireless devices connecting to the mission critical network. WiFi security for more than 20,000 devices joining the network daily was the first step in a 19-month initiative to make the IT environment… Read More »

Michigan Medicine tightens network security

Michigan Medicine is tightening the security for its wired and wireless networks to ensure that only authorized and inventoried computing devices can connect to internal resources. The network project is part of a year-long program to make the IT environment within the academic medical center as secure as possible for all patients, faculty, and staff. The program also… Read More »