Meaningful cybersecurity platform for startups, designed together with startups.
CyberSecure Health Technology Design is a user-centered, expert-validated platform solution to support the integration of cybersecurity concerns within health technology startups. The platform aimed to support startups in building life-changing health technologies by allowing them to discover impactful cybersecurity initiatives that were most relevant to them.
CyberSecure Health Technology Design is my M.Sc. thesis written in collaboration with my good friend and partner, Simon Vu. It documents the results of an interdisciplinary design research study of the cybersecurity challenges, methods and processes that arise and are faced by diverse Danish health technology startups. During this project, I was mainly responsible for the design related aspects, while Simon focused on the more technical and cybersecurity elements.
The study focuses on startups, as they are trailblazers in introducing novel health technologies that improve health. The aim of the thesis is to first gain insight into these startups’ approaches to cybersecurity and then leverage that insight for design in support of the integration of cybersecurity considerations into the development of health and healthcare technologies in startups.
We utilized a mixed-methods, co-design approach in close collaboration with health technology startups and cybersecurity experts. We first identified gaps in knowledge of current cybersecurity research concerning health and medical technology, such as how startups were affected by regulations, how startups plan for cybersecurity and how to facilitate a cybersecurity-aware culture in startups. We then invited eight startups for interviews to shed light on the implementation of cybersecurity concerns across the startups, including the need to prioritize product development over cybersecurity, pressure from health technology regulatory compliance and a general lack of relevant cybersecurity knowledge.
We believe that this combination of interview insights and the final design resulting from this study will enable researchers and startups alike to design and develop increasingly security-conscious health technology solutions. The thesis can be found here and, additionally, our work has also been published for the Late Breaking Work track at the CHI’23 conference! The paper can be found here.
A detailed explanation of the platform can also be seen below.
DTU, Msc in Design & Innovation, Group project, 5th semester 2022
