SIMPLE Medical Devices (MD)

Bear Systems is building on its next generation cybersecurity platform to provide a range of SIMPLE (Secure Integrated ML Platform Leveraging Expertise) solutions for the world’s most pressing needs.  This blog entry is one of a series of introductions showing how Bear can provide a SIMPLE solution for specific vertical challenges.

Medical device manufacturing used to be such a simple thing – incorporate some amazing technology inside of a piece of hardware, ensure it works, and then spend the next twenty years selling that device.  Sure, things like HIPAA might impact hospitals and such but medical device manufacturers were fairly impervious to these challenges.

Then somebody went and started making medical devices smart, wireless, Bluetooth-enabled, autonomous – and screwed everything up.

Now medical device manufacturers find themselves on the receiving end of complex, and seemingly ever-changing, regulations.  Customers are demanding on device protection and more and more lawyers are looking at these manufacturers when some new hack is revealed.  Compounding these issues, most medical device manufacturers make devices that are designed to be static by default and yet they are now on the hook to keep those devices updated for the next seven years.

Talk about recall costs…

SIMPLE MD is focused on overcoming these issues through a HIPAA-compliant platform that can handle updates on these static systems.  SIMPLE MD provides a unique type of agent on each device that is incredibly small, runs over any type of communication, and can enforce any type of policy required directly on that device.  By never reading or redirecting the data being produced from a patient, Smart MD incurs no compliance costs, and using Simple MD to remotely push new rules never causes unwanted disruptions.  To be clear, Simple MD can continuously update how a medical device works over time – even on embedded systems – without complex firmware updates or disruption.

SIMPLE MD is battery efficient, can adapt over time, and flexes to fit within a given device’s constraints.  Placed within a SIMPLE Hospital, SIMPLE MD devices can achieve even higher levels of protection that further mitigate downstream risks for medical device manufacturers.

Best of all, adding SIMPLE MD has zero impact on any applications (embedded or not) running on a given medical device.  There are no “modernization” requirements, no new transmitters needed, nothing changes and yet manufacturers obtain downstream insurance and advanced cybersecurity protection.

There is obviously more, much more, to our SIMPLE MD solution and, if you are interested, please contact us to learn more!