Samwise Healthcare IT Newsletter
Friday, August 7, 2026
Boston Children’s Hospital named in North Korean hacking operation
Boston Children’s Hospital is among roughly a dozen organizations publicly identified in a large-scale North Korean hacking operation detailed by security researcher Vangelis Stykas at the Black Hat conference in Las Vegas this week. Stykas, CTO at cybersecurity firm Kumio, spent 22 months inside the group’s command-and-control systems and found connections to 1,640 companies in 57 countries. The operation, tracked by Microsoft since 2022 as Contagious Interview, lures contractors with fake job offers and malware-laced coding tests. Boston Children’s disputed that its own systems were breached, saying the exposure traced to a former contractor’s personal device. Credentials were disabled within hours of notification.
Sources: Becker’s Hospital Review
Four lawsuits testing where AI accountability lands in healthcare
Health systems, insurers, and AI companies face a growing wave of lawsuits in 2026 over algorithmic decision-making. Mayo Clinic’s former director of research operations filed a July 6 federal suit alleging she was demoted and fired after raising concerns about the health system’s AI oversight. Kaiser Permanente reached a $556 million Medicare Advantage settlement January 14 — the largest risk adjustment settlement on record — over allegations its data-mining tools identified unsubmitted diagnoses later added to charts. A federal judge in March ordered UnitedHealth to produce documents in an AI coverage denial case. A Florida man sued OpenAI in July alleging ChatGPT advice delayed his pulmonary embolism care.
Sources: Becker’s Hospital Review
Most health systems lack dedicated AI testing platforms, KLAS report finds
More than 90 percent of health systems have deployed third-party AI tools, yet only 44 percent have a dedicated platform for testing AI performance, a joint report by the UPMC Center for Connected Medicine and KLAS Research found. Released August 6, the report identifies clinical documentation as the top AI application, cited by 52 percent of respondents. Sixty-three percent of systems described their AI strategy as “developing or ad hoc.” The findings suggest formal evaluation infrastructure has not kept pace with adoption rates across the sector, as organizations deploy AI tools faster than they build governance frameworks to assess them.
Sources: Becker’s Hospital Review
WellSpan CIO: AWS migration will speed Epic upgrades
York, Pa.-based WellSpan Health completed an AWS cloud migration in July 2026, moving more than 300 clinical applications and 7.5 petabytes of data in 17 weeks, CIO Wasif Jamal told Becker’s Hospital Review. The migration included Epic, the Mirth integration engine, and imaging systems. Jamal said the cloud environment will accelerate WellSpan’s quarterly Epic upgrades by reducing the resource burden previously tied to on-premises infrastructure management. The health system also plans to use Amazon Bedrock as an AI abstraction layer to support future artificial intelligence initiatives across its clinical and operational environments.
Sources: Becker’s Hospital Review
Children’s Minnesota prepares for $175M Epic go-live with 45 high-impact change topics
Minneapolis-based Children’s Minnesota is preparing for an October 3 Epic go-live following a $175 million, 15-month implementation investment, Clinical Vice President and Chief of Surgical Services Timothy Lander, MD, told Becker’s. The health system is transitioning from Oracle Health and eClinicalWorks, platforms it has used for roughly 15 years. Out of approximately 19,000 to 20,000 build decisions required for the Epic migration, Children’s Minnesota identified 45 high- or critical-impact change topics, each with an assigned change owner and coach. The organization plans to use Epic’s native AI tools, including ambient documentation through Chart with ART, following go-live.
Sources: Becker’s Hospital Review
Wolters Kluwer and Epic bundle three clinical tools for rural hospitals and FQHCs
Wolters Kluwer Health and Epic are offering eligible rural hospitals, federally qualified health centers, and tribal organizations bundled access to three clinical decision support tools integrated within the Epic EHR. The package combines UpToDate Lexidrug, Medi-Span, and UpToDate Patient Education in a single bundle, accessible inside Epic workflows. Becker’s reported the arrangement August 6, citing comments from Wolters Kluwer Senior Vice President Yaw Fellin. The companies said the offering is intended to simplify access to clinical drug reference and patient education resources for eligible organizations using Epic across the United States.
Sources: Becker’s Hospital Review
Cleveland Clinic taps Zipline to deliver medications by drone to patients’ homes
Cleveland Clinic has partnered with drone delivery company Zipline to deliver prescriptions and medical supplies directly to patients’ homes within a five-mile radius of its Beachwood, Ohio, campus, Healthcare IT News reported August 6. Zipline’s aircraft hover at 300 feet above ground level and lower a sealed delivery pod via a tether to the destination address. The service excludes controlled substances. Cleveland Clinic Chief Pharmacy Officer Lindsey Amerine and Zipline President Hillary Brendzel were both cited in the Healthcare IT News report covering the program’s launch at the Beachwood campus.
Sources: Healthcare IT News
Proactive tele-ICU models show measurable outcomes in critical care, including 44% ventilator reduction
Proactive tele-ICU models that place remote physicians and analytics at the center of critical care have shown measurable results, Healthcare IT News reported August 6. A 200-bed hospital using Sound Physicians’ tele-ICU program achieved a 44 percent reduction in days on mechanical ventilators, while a 580-bed trauma center improved its Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade from a D to a B following adoption of the model. Dr. Zanotti of Sound Physicians told Healthcare IT News that AI is most useful for documentation tasks described as “shallow work,” with human judgment remaining essential for complex critical care decisions.
Sources: Healthcare IT News
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