Rome, 21-22 January 2019 - the Gemelli University Hospital in Rome (Fondazione Policlinico Gemelli) hosts the first meeting of the PANACEA consortium. 

PANACEA is a 36-month research and innovation action funded under Europe's Horizon 2020 programme. Running from January 2019 to December 2021, its remit is to drive a people-centric approach to cybersecurity in healthcare by combining the best technologies with improved risk governance and tackling human factors that may undermine resilience to cyber-attacks of which the sector is a long-standing target. 

Research and development will focus on investigating cyber risk scenarios and key requirements with three end-user partners:

  • The Agostino Gemelli IRCCS University Hospital Foundation, an academic medical center operating in all areas of health and clinical assistance and one of the most important and internationally acclaimed care providers in Italy.
  • The 7th Health Region of Crete, a regional authority responsible for health policies and the digitisation of healthcare services. 
  • Hospital groups within the Health Service Executive in Ireland and the Irish Centre for Emergency Management. 

Working alongside technical partners and communication specialists from across Europe operating in both the public and private sectors, PANACEA Research will develop and rollout a multi-faceted toolkit spanning dynamic risk assessment and mitigation, secure information sharing, security by design and compliance support, identification and authentication management, cyber security training and education, risk governance (organisation-wide resilience to cyber-attacks) and secure behaviour nudging. 

Private-sector partners:

  • Aon (large company; Aon Italia). IDEMIA (large company, France). Innovation Sprint (SME, Belgium). RHEA Group (large company, Belgium). RINA (large company, Italy). Stelar Security Technology Law Research UG (SME, Germany), Trust-IT Services (SME, UK). 

Public sector partners: 

  • FORTH (Foundation for Research and Technology), Greece. Northumbria University at Newcastle (UK). Sapienza, University of Rome (Italy). Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (Italy). 

Expected impacts 

  • Improved security of health and care services, data and IT infrastructures. 
  • Reduced risk of data privacy breaches caused by cyber-attacks. 
  • Increased patient safety and trust.
  • Standardisation contributions, spanning health informatics at national, EU and international level and biometrics in healthcare at the international level. 

New knowledge will be imparted through project and 3rd-party events, research papers available in open access and through synergies established with peer projects and the cyberwatching.eu coordination and support action. 

Watch the video to learn more about PANACEA Research straight from the partners' mouths.