Author
Vincent JanseVanRensburg
In this Article
The growing challenge behind connected healthcare
In Part 1 of this series, we explored why healthcare networks must be designed differently. Hospitals operate around the clock, clinicians depend on continuous mobility, and uptime is directly tied to care delivery. Those demands require networks that are resilient, secure, and built around the realities of healthcare environments.
One of the biggest forces driving change in healthcare today is the rapid growth of the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT). Patient monitors, infusion pumps, imaging systems, smart beds, and countless other connected devices now play an important role in modern care delivery. These devices help clinicians make faster decisions, automate manual processes, and improve visibility into patient conditions.
But as healthcare organizations connect more devices, they are also introducing new operational and security challenges. The question is no longer whether these devices should be connected. The challenge is how to connect them securely at scale without disrupting clinical operations.
The devices healthcare depends on are often the hardest to secure
Many healthcare security strategies assume endpoints can support modern authentication methods, receive regular updates, and follow the same security controls as laptops or smartphones.
Healthcare environments are different.
Medical devices often remain in service for years because they are expensive, certified, and tied to critical workflows. Some run older operating systems. Others cannot support 802.1X authentication. Many cannot be modified without introducing compliance or operational concerns.
Yet those same devices frequently sit on networks that support clinicians, administrative staff, contractors, and guest users.
This creates a difficult balancing act for healthcare IT teams. The devices that are most critical to patient care are often the least capable of supporting modern security controls.
A proven approach in healthcare
Healthcare organizations across the region are already addressing the challenge of securely connecting growing numbers of users, devices, and clinical systems.
One example is Military Central Hospital 108 in Vietnam, which upgraded its wireless infrastructure to support clinicians, staff, patients, and operational systems across the facility. The deployment improved wireless coverage and network capacity while helping IT teams manage a growing number of connected users and applications more effectively.
The challenge will sound familiar to many healthcare organizations. As more connected medical devices are introduced, organizations need a way to provide the right level of access for each device without creating unnecessary complexity or risk.
A patient monitor may only need to communicate with a designated clinical application. A visitor device may only need internet connectivity. A clinician's tablet may require broader access while moving between wards throughout the day.
Applying the same policy to all devices increases risk. Treating devices according to their role requires identity, visibility, and control at the network edge.
Moving beyond shared credentials
This is where RUCKUS Dynamic Pre-Shared Key (DPSK®) helps address a challenge that is common across healthcare environments.
Traditional shared-password approaches provide little visibility into which device is connecting and what access it should receive. When hundreds or thousands of devices share credentials, controlling risk becomes increasingly difficult.
DPSK allows healthcare IT teams to assign unique credentials to individual devices or device groups. More importantly, it enables policies to follow those identities.
Instead of treating every connected endpoint the same, organizations can apply different VLANs, access controls, and quality-of-service policies based on the device and its intended use.
The device itself may not support advanced security capabilities. The network can still enforce them.
Extending Zero Trust principles to medical devices
Healthcare continues to be one of the most targeted industries for cyberattacks. It has also recorded the highest average data breach costs of any industry for more than a decade, with the average healthcare breach costing $6.64 million in 20261.
As a result, many healthcare organizations are adopting Zero Trust strategies to reduce risk across their environment.
The challenge is that IoMT devices often represent the most difficult part of the Zero Trust conversation.
Healthcare cannot simply remove these devices from the network. Nor can organizations always apply the same authentication methods used for traditional endpoints.
By applying identity-based access and segmentation at the network edge, organizations can move closer to Zero Trust principles for devices that would otherwise remain difficult to manage. RUCKUS helps healthcare organizations validate access, segment traffic, and limit lateral movement without relying on device-side security controls.
This approach becomes increasingly valuable as healthcare organizations continue expanding connected care initiatives.
Simplifying device lifecycle management
Securing devices is only part of the challenge. Managing them is another.
As deployments grow, manually onboarding and maintaining thousands of devices becomes difficult to sustain. Healthcare organizations need operational efficiency alongside security.
A scalable device lifecycle process should let the IT team answer four questions:
- Who or what owns this device?
- Which network policy applies to it?
- When should its access change or expire?
- Can IT revoke that access without disrupting unrelated devices?
With RUCKUS Cloudpath® Enrollment System, IT teams can automate onboarding, assign policies dynamically, and maintain visibility across connected endpoints. Rather than treating each device as an exception, organizations can establish repeatable processes that reduce administrative overhead while maintaining consistency across deployments.
Why this matters for healthcare
Secure IoMT connectivity is no longer a niche requirement. It is becoming foundational to modern healthcare operations.
As hospitals continue expanding connected care initiatives, the number of devices requiring network access will only increase. The organizations that succeed will be those that can balance security, operational simplicity, and clinical continuity.
The objective is not simply to connect more devices. It is to ensure those devices contribute to better workflows, stronger security, and more predictable operations.
RUCKUS can help healthcare IT teams assess wireless coverage, device onboarding, identity-based access, and segmentation across the clinical environment. The outcome is a prioritized plan aligned to the devices, workflows, and operational requirements your network must support.
Design a healthcare network around your clinical requirements.
What's next in the series
Part 3 concludes the series by exploring how AI-driven operations help healthcare IT teams maintain the resilient, secure, and scalable networks that connected care depends on, shifting from reactive troubleshooting to more predictive network management.
