PROGRAM SUMMARY

Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly transforming healthcare, but its growing capabilities also introduce new risks to patient care, workforce stability, communications, cybersecurity, and healthcare operations. The 2026 IHA Emergency Preparedness Exercise, “Broken Trust: AI Takes Control,” will challenge Illinois hospitals and health systems to respond to a sophisticated cyber incident in which AI is weaponized to amplify the attack, manipulate trusted information and communications, disrupt the healthcare workforce, and create cascading impacts to clinical and business operations.

This live interactive webinar will immerse multidisciplinary hospital teams statewide in an evolving scenario designed to evaluate and strengthen organizational decision-making, cyber resilience, continuity strategies, communication pathways, and workforce stability. Throughout the exercise, participants will respond to scenario injects, assess critical operational decisions, and benchmark their approaches with hospitals and health systems across Illinois.


LEARNING OBJECTIVES

At the conclusion of this program, participants will be able to:

  • Analyze how effectively the organization coordinates a multidisciplinary response to a cyber incident involving AI-enabled threats and cascading operational impacts.
  • Determine the organization’s capacity to maintain safe patient care and essential healthcare operations during a prolonged loss of IT, telecommunications, and other critical resources.
  • Examine the adequacy of the organization’s redundant internal and external communications when primary telecommunications and technology systems are unavailable or unreliable.
  • Test organizational processes for detecting, validating, escalating, and responding to malicious cyber activity and AI-enabled threats.
  • Gauge organizational readiness to verify information, establish trusted sources, and make timely operational decisions when AI-generated or manipulated information challenges the authenticity and reliability of communications.
  • Assess the organization’s ability to maintain employee safety, accountability, communication, and staff challenges resulting from AI-enabled misinformation.
  • Analyze organizational readiness to prioritize restoration, validate the integrity of affected systems and information, and safely transition critical services back to normal operations following the incident.

 
WHO SHOULD ATTEND

  • Emergency Preparedness/Management
  • Information Technology
  • Clinical Staff (Nurses, Physicians)
  • Operations
  • Security
  • Facilities/Engineering
  • Environmental Services
  • Administration/Senior Leadership
  • Communications/Media Relations
  • Risk Management/Legal

 

IHA STAFF CONTACT

Please contact IHAEP@team-iha.org with any questions.