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Your hip replacement surgery just got canceled because of hackers.
That’s what happened to thousands of patients when Stryker, one of the world’s largest medical device companies, got hit by Iranian hacktivists on March 11.
Employees watched helplessly as their computers were wiped clean. Global offices shut down. Supply chains froze.
Stryker makes the artificial joints, surgical equipment, and emergency stretchers that hospitals depend on every single day. When they go dark, surgeries get postponed. ERs scramble for alternatives. Patient care suffers.
Here’s the terrifying reality:
📊 Healthcare breaches jumped 239% in just 5 years
💰 Average breach cost: $10 million (highest of any industry)
🎯 79.7% of breaches now come from hacking, not lost laptops
Why healthcare? Your medical record sells for 50x more than a credit card number on the dark web.
The Senate finally woke up. Last week, they voted 22-1 to advance emergency cybersecurity legislation requiring:
• Multi-factor authentication (yes, in 2026 this still isn’t standard)
• Encrypted data storage
• Federal grants for cyber preparedness
• HHS incident response protocols
But here’s what keeps me up at night:
We’re treating cybersecurity like IT infrastructure when it’s actually patient safety infrastructure.
Every medical device, every EHR system, every supply chain link is a potential entry point for attackers who can literally shut down healthcare delivery.
Stryker is back online now, but the next attack is already being planned. And it might hit your local hospital, your imaging center, or your community clinic.
The question isn’t if, but when.
Are we really prepared to practice medicine when the lights go out?
♻️ Repost if cybersecurity is patient safety
👉 Follow me, Jonathan Govette, for daily, real-time updates on healthcare technology and business news. LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathangovette/
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Author:
CEO/Co-Founder @ Oatmeal Health | AI Lung Cancer Screening | Almost Became a Doctor | Engineer | Follow to Share What I’ve Learned Along the Way
I help patients get the care they need earlier, preventing late-stage cancer.
That’s been the throughline across three companies and almost 20 years in healthcare. At ReferralMD, we fixed broken referral networks so patients didn’t fall through the cracks. At Oatmeal Health, it’s lung cancer: building the diagnostic and screening infrastructure so the 85% of cases caught too late get caught early instead.
Today as CEO of Oatmeal Health, I lead a team embedding AI into radiology workflows to turn routine lung CT scans into reimbursable cancer risk assessments. We partner with FQHCs to reach underserved communities, and with health systems and payers to make early detection economically sustainable. Think HeartFlow or Cleerly, but for lungs.
Between companies, I advised at Techstars and Plug and Play, mentoring founders building in digital health. That experience shaped how I think about what separates companies that ship from companies that stall: distribution, reimbursement, and clinical trust, not just technology.
I’m a CancerX alumnus, a 3x healthcare founder, and someone who believes the biggest problems in cancer aren’t scientific. They’re operational.
We’re hiring mission-driven builders at Oatmeal Health. If you want to work on something that matters, reach out.
When I’m not working, I’m traveling, mentoring, and keeping up with one very energetic husky. 🐾
Substack – The Oatmeal Bite:
Millions of patients get less care because of who they are, where they live, or how they look. I’m fighting to change that. CEO @OatmealHealth, a startup built for the underserved. The Oatmeal Bite: intel for clinicians, investors, and advocates.
Jonathan Govette
CEO of Oatmeal Health
Substack:
https://oatmealhealthjonathangovette.substack.com/
