Cybersecurity threats in the Health sector are increasing globally due to the rising value of sensitive health information and availability of digitalised personal health records. This systematic r...

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/02684527.2020.1752459

Towards understanding cybersecurity capability in Australian healthcare organisations: a systematic review of recent trends, threats and mitigation

Mobile health (mHealth) applications (apps) have gained significant popularity over the last few years due to its tremendous benefits, such as lowering healthcare cost and increasing patient awareness. However, the sensitivity of healthcare data makes the security of mHealth apps a serious concern. In this review, we aim to identify and analyse the reported challenges that the developers of mHealth apps face concerning security. Additionally, our study aimed to develop a conceptual framework with the challenges faced by mHealth apps development organization for developing secure apps. The knowledge of such challenges can help to reduce the risk of developing insecure mHealth apps. We followed the Systematic Literature Review method for this review. We selected studies that have been published between January 2008 and October 2020. We selected 32 primary studies using predefined criteria and used thematic analysis method for analysing the extracted data. We identified nine challenges that can affect the development of secure mHealth apps. Such as 1) lack of security guidelines and regulations for developing secure mHealth apps, 2) developers lack of knowledge and expertise for secure mHealth app development, 3) lack of stakeholders involvement during mHealth app development, etc . Based on our analysis, we have presented a conceptual framework which highlights the correlation between the identified challenges. We conclude that our findings can help them identify their weaknesses and improve their security practices. Similarly, mHealth apps developers can identify the challenges they face to develop mHealth apps that do not pose security risks for users. Our review is a step towards providing insights into the development of secure mHealth apps. Our proposed conceptual framework can act as a practice guideline for practitioners to enhance secure mHealth apps development.

Challenges in Developing Secure Mobile Health Applications, A Systematic Review

Background: Mobile health (mHealth) apps have gained significant popularity over the last few years due to their tremendous benefits, such as lowering health care costs and increasing patient awareness. However, the sensitivity of health care data makes the security of mHealth apps a serious concern. Poor security practices and lack of security knowledge on the developers’ side can cause several vulnerabilities in mHealth apps.
Objective: In this review paper, we aimed to identify and analyze the reported challenges concerning security that developers of mHealth apps face. Additionally, our study aimed to develop a conceptual framework with the challenges for developing secure apps faced by mHealth app development organizations. The knowledge of such challenges can help to reduce the risk of developing insecure mHealth apps.
Methods: We followed the systematic literature review method for this review. We selected studies that were published between January 2008 and October 2020 since the major app stores launched in 2008. We selected 32 primary studies using predefined criteria and used a thematic analysis method for analyzing the extracted data.
Results: Of the 1867 articles obtained, 32 were included in this review based on the predefined criteria. We identified 9 challenges that can affect the development of secure mHealth apps. These challenges include lack of security guidelines and regulations for developing secure mHealth apps (20/32, 63%), developers’ lack of knowledge and expertise for secure mHealth app development (18/32, 56%), lack of stakeholders’ involvement during mHealth app development (6/32, 19%), no/little developer attention towards the security of mHealth apps (5/32, 16%), lack of resources for developing a secure mHealth app (4/32, 13%), project constraints during the mHealth app development process (4/32, 13%), lack of security testing during mHealth app development (4/32, 13%), developers’ lack of motivation and ethical considerations (3/32, 9%), and lack of security experts’ engagement during mHealth app development (2/32, 6%). Based on our analysis, we have presented a conceptual framework that highlights the correlation between the identified challenges.
Conclusions: While mHealth app development organizations might overlook security, we conclude that our findings can help them to identify the weaknesses and improve their security practices. Similarly, mHealth app developers can identify the challenges they face to develop mHealth apps that do not pose security risks for users. Our review is a step towards providing insights into the development of secure mHealth apps. Our proposed conceptual framework can act as a practice guideline for practitioners to enhance secure mHealth app development.

/pdf/challenges-with-developing-secure-mobile-health-applications-2koyen39us.pdf

Challenges With Developing Secure Mobile Health Applications: Systematic Review.

The health affairs journal states that in India the rate of wrong diagnosis have become more. In Delhi the correct diagnosis was less than 50 percent and same was the case in rural Madhya Pradesh where 42 percent was found to be wrongly diagnosed.Since only few in these areas get correct treatment for the diseases we are putting forward a method for efficient healthcare management. Mobile devices have become a basic need in the present generation. Therefore we are making use of mobile devices in our project to improve the health care by reducing medical errors. We have proposed an application that makes use of NFC tags for storing EHR.

https://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR1504034.pdf

Nfc based secure mobile healthcare system

Mobile apps exploit embedded sensors and wireless connectivity of a device to empower users with portable computations, context-aware communication, and enhanced interaction. Specifically, mobile health apps (mHealth apps for short) are becoming integral part of mobile and pervasive computing to improve the availability and quality of healthcare services. Despite the offered benefits, mHealth apps face a critical challenge, i.e., security of health-critical data that is produced and consumed by the app. Several studies have revealed that security specific issues of mHealth apps have not been adequately addressed. The objectives of this study are to empirically (a) investigate the challenges that hinder development of secure mHealth apps, (b) identify practices to develop secure apps, and (c) explore motivating factors that influence secure development. We conducted this study by collecting responses of 97 developers from 25 countries - across 06 continents - working in diverse teams and roles to develop mHealth apps for Android, iOS, and Windows platform. Qualitative analysis of the survey data is based on (i) 8 critical challenges, (ii) taxonomy of best practices to ensure security, and (iii) 6 motivating factors that impact secure mHealth apps. This research provides empirical evidence as practitioners' view and guidelines to develop emerging and next generation of secure mHealth apps.

An Empirical Study on Developing Secure Mobile Health Apps: The Developers' Perspective

Recent trends indicate a steady rise in cyber attacks targeting the healthcare industry and patient data. Security is one of the most vital requirements for any device that utilizes medical data. Mobile applications within healthcare are becoming increasingly popular, and users presume these applications are secure. However, a lack of security cognizance among developers and a rush to market have introduced a plethora of security vulnerabilities in mobile health applications. Our initial research showed that health-related mobile applications contain numerous vulnerabilities for attackers to potentially obtain medical data. In this paper, we propose a security framework for mobile applications in healthcare to address common security vulnerabilities that appear during the application development process. Our goal is to maintain an expected level of user functionality and ensure personal health information is secure when using a mobile application.

Christopher Lakin

Papers

A Security Framework for Mobile Health Applications