VIENNA - The Irish healthcare service was hit hard by a huge cybersecurity attack in May 2021, and the impact is still being felt. Informatics specialist Candice Whitfield reflects on the incident and how the imaging community can protect itself. She also discusses her role as a RIS PACS manager and her love of rugby.
Whitfield originally trained as a radiographer in South Africa, but she has lived in Ireland for the last 20 years. Most of her clinical years were spent working in a pediatric hospital in Dublin, where she specialized in MRI.
"While there, we transitioned from a film-based department to getting PACS. Our PACS procurement was part of a national project/installation. About six months after our go-live, I went to work for the PACS vendor Change Healthcare as a PACS implementation consultant," she noted.
More recently her roles have been in management, but with an oversight/input on the digital/systems side. She has also worked on the national PACS project.
