The Summer Excellence in Research Program for Faculty (SEiR-F) promotes high-quality research efforts for Culverhouse faculty by providing funding for their summer research. Funds may be taken as a summer stipend and/or used to reduce the costs of the proposed research.

In order to be awarded a SEiR-F grant, the faculty must engage in research efforts that:

1. Have clear potential for high impact on business and/or society

2. Result in the submission of a manuscript to a high-quality, peer-reviewed academic journal and/or submission of a proposal for research funding to a recognized grant agency (federal, state, foundation, or private industry).

Each semester, the faculty members who received grants through the SEiR-F program will give presentations of their supported research.

About the session

Impact of Ransomware on Healthcare Systems

Advances in information systems and cloud services have helped the healthcare industry to replace paper-based operations with electronic health record systems, which paved the way for easier and more accessible patient treatment. However, as technology evolves, the present-day healthcare industry has also become one of the main victims of cyberattacks called ransomware, which is malware that blocks a user’s access to infected devices. In particular, ransomware can severely disrupt patient care processes, posing nontrivial challenges for healthcare organizations. Utilizing a unique dataset that captures two ransomware attacks experienced by large hospitals in Alabama, we empirically examine the impact of ransomware on ambulance performance measures for patients involved in emergency incidents. Specifically, using a difference-in-differences regression design, we find that the ransomware security breach can significantly deteriorate ambulance performance measures in terms of transport, response, and on-scene times. However, we also find that the adverse effects of ransomware can substantially vary depending on the network of hospitals surrounding the breached hospital. Overall, our findings can inform policymakers or healthcare administrators on the adverse effects of ransomware and the role of decentralized hospital network in mitigating the impacts of such disruption.