“Trust nothing, verify everything,” which is the Zero Trust model, can garner a lot of benefits if applied correctly as a strategy by healthcare organizations. Unfortunately, security teams often look to implement it prescriptively, applying a perimeter around each and every entity to try to tightly restrict access to only what is necessary. In healthcare organizations, this can be extremely problematic, even dangerous.

People and devices in a hospital or clinical setting are constantly moving, sometimes even rushing down halls and floors in the course of delivering care. If access to a ventilator is blocked or an IV pump is prevented from communicating with a patient monitor, simply because it has been moved or just powered up, the consequences can be critical. Within healthcare, Zero Trust is not about protecting each device, but rather each care protocol. It is not about protecting things (e.g. each device), but rather the process that the things are involved in.

What this means is that security teams can’t work in isolation. To effectively protect the clinical network, they need the input of clinicians and biomedical engineers, who understand the physical and digital flows associated with administering patient care. And clinicians and biomed professionals should want to be involved in setting the strategy to ensure that access and availability to the devices and settings that provide care are never interrupted.

When applied correctly, a Clinical Zero Trust strategy can drive benefits for security, biomed, and the patients. This paper reviews how security and biomed professionals within healthcare delivery organizations need to break the silos and start collaborating to enhance patient safety.

Download the white paper to learn more.