PANACEA – Delivering people-centric cybersecurity solutions in healthcare

Healthcare is increasingly evolving towards digitisation: from the pervasive development of electronic health records, to teleconsultation and tele-expertise, ICT is pervasively present in healthcare with complexities and interdependencies on the rise for all hospitals and clinics across Europe. And this is where cybersecurity comes into play. In fact, the situation is even more severely stressed by the fact that a ‘one-size-fits all’ approach to cybersecurity in healthcare is not possible. In this scenario, PANACEA proposes to embrace a people-centric model while delivering innovative, risk-based, cybersecurity solutions in healthcare. The idea is that data need to follow the patient, just like professionals need to collaborate around the same patient case and patients often want to be actively involved in their healthcare management. In this context, identity of the patient is crucial and instrumental to care delivery and provisioning of a secure and convenient digital identity for patients, connecting to their health data as the key to unlocking the potential of eHealth.

In the period 2019-2021, PANACEA will deliver an innovative cybersecurity toolkit, providing a holistic approach for Health Care Institutions made up of a combination of technical (SW platforms for dynamic risk assessment, secure information sharing & security-by-design) and non-technical (procedures, governance models, people behaviour tools) elements.

PANACEA will move beyond the current state of the art in the strategic areas of dynamic risk assessment & mitigation (threat modelling, attack modelling, response management, visual analytics), blockchain for secure information sharing, identification/authentication (cryptographic authentication protocols, biometric recognition/digital identity, Internet of Medical Things – IoMT identification), and secure behaviours decision models and influencers.

Owing to its end-user-driven approach, PANACEA aims to field-demonstrate that cybersecurity in healthcare stems from full awareness of one own’s cyber vulnerabilities and can be delivered with a people-centric model, ultimately enabling healthcare facilities to assess the nature and severity of a threat, and sustainably decide on the strategies to be adopted to strengthen their preparedness and response.

About PANACEA

PANACEA, funded by the European Commission under the H2020 Framework Programme, is carried out by a committed, competent and complementary Consortium of 15 Partners from 7 European Countries, Lead by Università Cattolica / Fondazione Policlinico Gemelli (Italy) and involves three end-users in the healthcare domain.

Keywords

Cybersecurity, IT security, healthcare, data protection, privacy, risk management, innovation.