It is with great excitement that I share LogRhythm’s involvement in the newest healthcare project from the National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (NCCoE) — Securing Telehealth Remote Patient Monitoring Ecosystem. The project aims to provide a reference architecture that will address the security and privacy risks for healthcare delivery organizations (HDOs) leveraging telehealth capabilities such as remote patient monitoring (RPM). LogRhythm’s NextGen SIEM Platform — along with NetMon — will be core to the detection and response capabilities of the architecture*.
LogRhythm is among 10 technology providers and industry experts chosen to collaborate on this critical initiative. Others include Accuhealth, Inova Health System, MedCrypt, MedSec, University of Mississippi Medical Center, and Vivify Health. These collaborators will work with the NCCoE project team to provide a practical solution for securing the telehealth RPM ecosystem.
A survey of 500 U.S. consumers conducted by Sage Growth Partners (SGP) and Black Book Market Research found that while only one-quarter of respondents have used telehealth in the past, 59% are interested in using it in the future, and more than one-third would leave their provider to access telehealth. This not only emphasizes the need for healthcare organizations to embrace virtual care, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, but it is also an indicator that telehealth is here to stay.
HDOs are leveraging a combination of telehealth capabilities, including RPM and video conferencing, to treat patients in their homes. Traditionally, patient monitoring systems have been deployed in healthcare facilities, which are tightly controlled environments. RPM is different, in that monitoring equipment is deployed in the patient’s home, which does not offer the same level of cybersecurity or physical security control to prevent misuse or compromise. According to the NCCoE, the project will “result in a publicly available National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Cybersecurity Practice Guide, a detailed implementation guide of the practical steps needed to implement a cybersecurity reference design that addresses this challenge.”
This initiative will prove critically important as the safety concerns around going to a hospital remain. Doctors and nurses will continue to rely on remote and telehealth capabilities to minimize the risk to both themselves and their patients. Children, the elderly, and those with compromised immune systems, for instance, cannot risk going to the hospital or clinic unless absolutely necessary. Instead, doctors will host safer appointments from home via teleconsulting for the foreseeable future.
To learn more about the project, visit Securing Telehealth Remote Patient Monitoring Ecosystem. And to learn more about how the LogRhythm NextGen SIEM Platform is helping healthcare organizations, view the demo.
*Note: NIST does not evaluate commercial products under this consortium and does not endorse any product or service used.