Case Study: Securing Digital Health Records to Research and Improve Patient Care

Subject: Military Health System Information Platform (MIP) Security

The Challenge:

Under the Enterprise Intelligence and Data Solutions (EIDS) program, the client is streamlining the Enterprise Data Virtualization enclave for business and analytical tools and integrated technology for the Military Health System (MHS). The goal is to establish an enduring Electronic Health Record (EHR) ecosystem within the future MHS Genesis enclave in order to consolidate patient records and other data in the cloud, enhance research, improve patient care, modernize the underlying infrastructure, and introduce standardization that reduces operating costs.   Migrating the numerous Systems of Record (SOR) to enable these outcomes requires continuous scrutiny on the enclave’s cybersecurity risk score and information assurance throughout the systems engineering process.

The Solution:

Our Risk Management Framework (RMF) experts developed an innovative information security solution to securely migrate the enclave to the cloud.  Our solution ensured disciplined policy and security control implementation, and provided enterprise component hardening validations and risk score reviews while continuously monitoring the evolving system for vulnerabilities and intrusions.  These actions and associated artifacts supported comprehensive Annual Assessments to maintain and/or acquire authorization to operate and achieve Risk Assessments for baseline changes.  Further, we streamlined the annual assessment processes by creating an Organization SOR to provide umbrella policies and procedures, reducing the non-technical aspects of the RMF process and enabling expedited annual assessments that focus on technical controls. This solution reduces the administrative burdens on system administrators and data scientists, allowing them to focus on infrastructure maintenance and solution development. 

The Mission Impact:

•     Improved Patient Care and Operating Efficiencies:

Our solution securely enables continual application modernization in a DevSecOps environment and data consolidation as the enclave evolves, allowing advanced health analytics to improve patient care and reduce healthcare system operating costs.

•     A Cybersecurity Benchmark for Health Analytics:

Our streamlined RMF solution reduces administrative burden while focusing on technical controls in an ever-evolving application and infrastructure ecosystem, setting a new standard for healthcare cybersecurity.

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