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The Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (Arpa-H), a research support agency within the United States Department of Health and Human Services, has announced the launch of the Digital Health Security project, also known as Digiheals. The initiative aims to find and fund the development of cybersecurity technologies that can enhance defenses for digital infrastructure in US healthcare.

Healthcare providers in the US and globally have long been targeted by criminal cyberattacks, with ransomware attacks being particularly prevalent. These attacks take advantage of medical facilities’ high-stakes work to extort large sums of money. Although efforts have been made to combat cybercriminals, healthcare attacks still occur regularly, causing disruptions to vital services and endangering patients.

Arpa-H, which focuses on research support, is shifting its attention to cybersecurity innovation through the Digiheals program. The goal is to make progress in developing effective and usable digital defense tools for medical facilities. The agency seeks to foster novel and inventive solutions that can be applied across the healthcare industry.

Digiheals is open to submissions from a broad range of participants, including academic and nonprofit researchers, as well as the commercial industry. The initiative encourages proposals related to vulnerability detection, software hardening, system patching, and the expansion or development of security protocols. The aim is to cast a wide net and accept diverse ideas that can address the urgent need for cybersecurity in healthcare.

Furthermore, Digiheals acknowledges the unique challenges in studying real-world cybersecurity conditions in healthcare due to the varying systems and devices across medical providers’ networks. To bridge the technical gap, researchers are encouraged to submit insights on security tools that are not working in healthcare settings and the reasons for their failures.

The Digiheals initiative comes at a critical time when the US healthcare system requires robust cybersecurity capabilities to protect patient privacy, safety, and lives. While the damage caused by cyberattacks on hospitals is significant, Arpa-H is committed to moving swiftly on developing new digital defenses to mitigate future risks. The agency sees this as a responsibility and an essential step in safeguarding the healthcare sector.

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