April 6, 2023 – KARL STORZ Endoscopy-America, Inc., a leader in minimally invasive surgical technology and operating room integration, has been granted an Authorization to Operate by the U.S. Department of Defense, Defense Health Agency. This ATO, valid for three years, can be applied across all branches of the federal government, including the Army, Air Force, Navy, Marines, Coast Guard, and Veterans Health Administration as well as other agencies utilizing federally allocated dollars.
Cybersecurity is a key element in the successful implementation and deployment of any medical device, but especially integrated operating rooms. Technology products and suppliers that receive an ATO have cleared extensive IT security and privacy controls and undergo training that help prevent additional risk to government systems. This means KARL STORZ is deemed secure within certain deployment parameters and remains the only operating room integration supplier with an ATO from the DoD. This is, in fact, the second time that KARL STORZ has been granted an ATO—once under the previous DIACAP cybersecurity program, and now under the current Risk Management Framework (RMF).
“Our commitment to the Department of Defense is ongoing, and the product improvements we make will ultimately serve our customers across all government as well as nongovernment commercial sectors,” said Patrick Neely, Director of Federal Healthcare at KARL STORZ. “We provide advanced surgical technologies to the men and women defending our country, while also maintaining the cybersecurity of our nation. This means securing products to the highest cybersecurity standards so that clinical staff and patients have access to the most comprehensive surgical feature set during minimally invasive procedures.”