Sanford Health, DSU Launch CyberHealth Innovation Hub

November 23, 2020 - Dakota State University (DSU) and Sanford Health announced the launch of a new initiative, which will create a CyberHealth innovation hub designed to combine the strengths of each organization to expand the cybersecurity workforce and drive healthcare innovation, as well as economic development.

Sanford Health is one of the largest US health systems, while DSU is a leader in cyber education and research.

There are massive cybersecurity staffing shortages across all sectors, including healthcare, where, in 2017, the Department of Health and Human Services’ cybersecurity task force found three out of four hospitals operate without a designated security leader.

The DSU-Sanford Health partnership is designed to tackle these cybersecurity challenges, by creating a transformational program that will educate students on where cyber crosses paths with healthcare.

The program will include student enrichment opportunities, cyber executive education, and outreach programs, meant to improve the educational background of cyber professionals and to attract cyber talent to the region, officials explained.

Further, the partnership will also leverage health data research initiatives around the use of AI, predictive analysis, and machine learning to improve healthcare innovations and patient outcomes.

DSU and Sanford Health also plan to develop a healthcare technology and cybersecurity operations center, which officials said they hope will serve as a model for healthcare across the country.

The partnership also established a Cyber Solutions Accelerator Lab, which was designed as a destination for testing and proving technology capabilities to solve real-world problems. The lab is just the third established in the US.

Research will also include the development of leading data science specifically focused on sports medicine and athletics, such as injury prevention and athletic performance, as well as support of technology innovation to improve healthcare delivery across the spectrum. Officials said they expect the strategic alliance to generate significant economic impact for the region through job creation and attracting capital and other resources.

“The future of exceptional healthcare lies in our ability to harness the power of cyber to help people get well and stay well,” Josh Robinson, Sanford Health’s chief technology officer,” said in a statement.

“Technology supports everything we do in healthcare and this requires a constant connection to the brightest and best in cyber,” he added. “This alliance will enable us to work with those at the leading edge of what’s happening in cyber now and into the future, to take care of people, physically, mentally, and emotionally, throughout their entire lives.”

The American Hospital Association has previously advocated for enhanced cybersecurity education programs, much like the planned DSU-Sanford Health project. As noted repeatedly by healthcare stakeholders, collaboration is crucial for improving cyber posture across the sector as providers are only as secure as the weakest link in their supply chain.

In addition, the Institute for Critical Infrastructure Technology explained that hackers will often share resources with other cybercriminals to improve tactics but many in healthcare don’t apply the same processes, which could allow for “stronger data protection and more importantly, for proactive deterrence options instead of reactive remediation efforts.”

“Meaningful collaboration has proven one of the most under-utilized, cost-effective, and impactful strategies organizations can engage to mitigate hyper-evolving cyber threats,” ICIT said, at the time.

The Healthcare and Public Health Sector Coordinating Council has been one of the largest proponents for these efforts, sharing guidance on how to recruit and retain skilled cybersecurity professionals in healthcare in early 2019.