This Information Security and Assurance for Healthcare Applications project extends a previous project which provided exposure to the increasingly critical field of healthcare security to a new generation of computer security and information assurance (IS&A) professionals. As a result of the previous project, 29 students were successfully placed in jobs in federal agencies or labs, including those with healthcare security interests.
The relevance of this goal has since been repeatedly underscored at the highest levels of the federal and state health infrastructures by mandates to broaden utilization of information technology in the delivery of healthcare while protecting the security and privacy of health information exchanges and on-line databases. It is now widely recognized that establishment of trusted national healthcare information networks and databases to unify health and medical computing infrastructures, streamline healthcare monitoring and delivery, and accelerate research and dissemination of health and medical data while assuring that privacy is systemically protected have collectively achieved the scope of a critical national challenge.
This project provides its graduate students: (a) Rigorous and broad educational foundations addressing the theory, design, and applications of IS&A technologies; (b) Healthcare policy, management, and privacy issues; and (c) Potential vulnerabilities associated with computer-based medical devices, which increasingly have networking and wireless capabilities.
Broad Impact: The goal of this proposal is to provide the option to 15 new students to complete either the Master of Science in Security Informatics (MSSI) degree program or a dual MSSI/Master of Health Sciences (MHS) program, which was developed by means of a previous SFS capacity building grant. Focused outreach to assure diversity for this healthcare security opportunity takes advantage of existing partnerships with HBCUs and MSIs.
Intellectual Merit: The dual masters program made available to the new SFS scholars is based on an integration of courses, labs, research projects, and internships stemming from the two different academic cultures represented by the public health and computing schools. The intellectual merit of this partnership is represented by the development and implementation of a unique interdisciplinary framework supporting educational cross-training regarding IS&A technologies relative to healthcare security applications. Selected healthcare security courses to support the dual MSSI/MHS degree are made accessible in an on-line format.
