The Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) is investing millions into projects that make advancements in technologies that protect the security of health data, the agency announced last week.
ARPA-H, housed within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, plans to make up to $50 million in funding for six contracts through its Digital Health Security (DIGIHEALS) project, focused on the electronic infrastructure of the U.S. healthcare system.
The DIGIHEALS initiative supports innovative research that protects the U.S. healthcare system’s electronic infrastructure against hostile threats. DIGIHEALS seeks to reduce the ability of bad actors to attack digital health software and hardware and to enable the prevention of large-scale cyberattacks.
“These projects will seek to develop technologies that can address current gaps in cybersecurity for health care systems across the country, ensuring patients continue to receive care in the wake of a medical facility cyberattack,” ARPA-H Director Renee Wegrzyn said in a press release.
The six awardees, a combination of universities and companies, are focused on automated patching for medical devices, ransomware intervention, cognitive health assistants, cyber reasoning techniques, and electronic health record (EHR) consolidation.
“These six contract awards represent a step forward in funding cutting-edge data security technologies to address pressing vulnerabilities in our health systems that are currently not addressed through existing national security efforts or the public and private sectors,” said ARPA-H Program Manager Andrew Carney.
According to ARPA-H, funding varies in amount and is contingent upon the recipient meeting aggressive milestones specific to their project.
The six project awardees include:
- Automated Medical Device Patching, by Systems & Technology Research LLC
- Healthcare Ransomware Resiliency and Response Program, by the University of California San Diego
- Reliable and eXplainable Cyber Reasoning System for Digital Health Security, by Arizona State University
- Cognitive Health Assistant that Learns and Organizes, by SRI International
- Digital Format Rehabilitation to Improve Interoperability of EHR Systems and Records, by Narf Industries LLC
- Software Bill of Materials and Software Bills of Behaviors for Effective Cyber Risk Mitigation in Healthcare Systems Comparative Study, by Karambit.AI, Inc
