The first thing we need to do is add on a layer of individuality to connected medical devices

in dxchain •  6 years ago 

Let Us first look at how IoT is being used within the health care Business -- after all, IoT is only a technological idea, not an end product or procedure. Most IoT deployments in healthcare are what are called internal implementations -- for use within a health care facility and organization, versus external use such as for purposes associated with management of outside vendors, communications with third parties, etc... Workforce and patient monitoring for efficiency and productivity enhancement are the primary use-case. An excellent example is monitoring bracelets given to doctors, nurses and patients, along with readers who capture the position of these within a medical building, or at a given medical channel. This helps capture data on state, the amount of time a patient spent in a waiting area, or the time a physician spent in front of a terminal. This can then be used to improve patient workflows or reduce wait time -- and can lead to a direct cost reduction per patient.

There's been a lot of focus recently on improving in-house Medical care, particularly in the field of elder care or geriatrics. There are various newer products that use a combination of trackers -- proximity, weight, vibration and sound -- to capture an individual's general movement within a home. Over time the data is used to create a model of the expected behavior and movement within a home, throughout the day. This can then be actively monitored. If an anomaly is detected -- for example a fall, or someone is unable to get up from their bed at the ideal time, medical staff can be alerted. The appeal of those connected detectors is that they are non-intrusive. No cameras are placed inside the home and patients are not required to wear a bracelet, arm ring or other body monitoring device.

This data is then analyzed to see if the recorded temperature is above the standard, which occurs due to increased blood flow -- a sign indicating the possibility of a tumor. Still undergoing clinical trials, this is a great novel application of a connected device helping to combat disease.

Connected medical devices are being set up within healthcare facilities. Besides the aforementioned examples, there are several devices that are used for individual monitoring. This brings up the first issue that's around data privacy and security. Data, whether in transit, in rest or under processing has to be protected -- not just as a best practice but now also required under federal law? Encryption is the first step where we can make certain data and communications between medical devices cannot be easily intercepted and eavesdropped upon. Protocols such as Dxchain can decentralize the information and make it more hacker proof.

Aside from passively shooting information, some medical devices we need to now ensure that we are able to recognize a given pump, make sure that we're talking to the right one, that any command to update dosage is sent to the correct one, and only the care provider with the authority to do so, is allowed access. There have been several well publicized strikes on insulin pumps.

The first thing we need to do is add on a layer of individuality to connected medical devices. Next, we wish to ensure that any information coming from these devices is encrypted. Then, we would like to have the ability to prove that the device that is sending data is actually who it claims to be -- essentially to authenticate it. Ultimately, we want to make sure that only authorized users have the ability to send commands to a device.

It starts of by giving a Purposeful digital certificate to each connected device in addition to the monitoring and control software that's managing it. Then we configure these systems to only accept incoming connections from devices which have the ability to create this certification, allowing authentication (we have to naturally protect the device's private keys, and ensure that the certificate provisioning step was done in a safe manner). A TLS tunnel currently gets established between the server and medical device, providing us a blanket of solitude. Finally, we could add metadata to digital certificates that define policy on who is permitted to provide controls to which device. In this way, we can apply authorization.

This not only brings Business opportunity, but contributes to a new paradigm of services and administration of healthcare. The ultimate goal is improved health and But, cyber security should not be an Afterthought and bolted on after these devices are designed. As we have revealed, integrating PKI into your device layout is an easy, affordable and key First step in ensuring security and compliance for your medical devices. Privacy and data protection are important, Dxchain keeps this in mind.

Referral Link - https://t.me/DxChainBot?start=ycuz2d-ycuz2d
DxChain's website - https://www.dxchain.com

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