Sustaining Life during a ”Digital Darkness” Event

The Role of IT and Engineering in Safeguarding Patient Care during an Emergency

September 24, 2025 | 12:00 p.m. ET

Overview

A healthcare organization’s technology infrastructure—its hardware, software, networks, and communications systems—often goes unnoticed in patient safety conversations until something fails. When a “digital darkness event” occurs and access to critical systems is lost, operations can grind to a halt and patient safety is immediately jeopardized. Such a scenario is every healthcare provider’s nightmare, and it remains a constant concern for IT professionals, engineers, and technical services teams tasked with keeping systems running. Building and maintaining robust infrastructure is essential, but just as important is preparing for the possibility of catastrophic outages and ensuring recovery is possible.

The need for strong business continuity and disaster recovery planning is only heightened by ongoing threats like cyberattacks, natural disasters, and other emergencies. Prisma Health in Greenville, SC, recognized this reality when its Technical Services team launched a multi-year infrastructure improvement project during a period of mergers and acquisitions. Their work proved critical in September 2024, when Hurricane Helene struck and the organization’s preparedness allowed it to continue operations despite widespread community devastation.

During this webinar, we’ll talk with Prisma Health’s Daniel Leonard about his team’s experiences both during the storm and throughout the improvement project that enabled the organization to withstand such a major crisis.

Learning Objectives

Viewers of this webcast will gain a deeper understanding of:

• The role of IT and engineering professionals in building and maintaining the technology infrastructure that supports patient care.
• The strains that can be placed on the infrastructure by organizational expansion through mergers and acquisitions.
• The importance of viewing business continuity and disaster recovery plans as mission critical.
• Key strategies for safeguarding patient care in the event of a catastrophic outage.

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Moderator

Rob Schluth

Principal Project Officer I, Device Safety, ECRI

Rob Schluth is a project leader focusing on content development and program management for ECRI's Device Safety group. During his 30 years at ECRI, Rob has contributed to hundreds of the organization's device evaluations, problem reports, and guidance articles spanning a wide range of health technologies. Rob currently manages special initiatives for the device evaluation & safety team and leads the development of the organization's annual Top 10 Health Technology Hazards report.

Panelists

Daniel  Leonard

Vice President of Technical Services, Information Technology Services, Prisma Health

Daniel Leonard is the Vice President of Technical Services with Prisma Health. Daniel has served the community of South Carolina as a leader in healthcare technology for the past 16 years. Application Developer and DBA by background, Daniel graduated from the University of South Carolina Upstate in 2004 with a bachelor’s in computer science and holds a master’s degree in Information Service Management from Walden University. Daniel also completed his CHIME certification, CHCIO, Certified Healthcare Chief Information Officer. Integration and application development have been the cornerstones of his experience. Healthcare Data and Analytics are his most passioned successes. Daniel lives in the Simpsonville community of South Carolina with his wife Stephanie and four children (Hardin, Maple, Alder and Scarlett) tending to their many pets including several Beehives.

Scott Luney

Cybersecurity Consultant, Lead, ECRI

Scott Luney is ECRI’s Cybersecurity Consultant, Lead, focusing on cybersecurity initiatives, including cybersecurity content development for the organization. Additionally, Scott leads the Device Safety group cybersecurity function, including assisting ECRI’s project officers with cybersecurity device evaluation reviews.  Scott has over 22 years’ experience in technology within healthcare, with the last 8 years focused on cybersecurity, including cybersecurity engineering, cybersecurity governance, compliance and risk, and cybersecurity in healthcare.