Building a Secure Future for Connected Healthcare: ENTRUST’s Synergy with TITAN
- ENTRUST
- 1 day ago
- 3 min read
The digital transformation of healthcare is entering a new era. Connected Medical Devices (CMDs) are now integral to clinical practice, enabling continuous monitoring, earlier interventions, and more efficient care delivery. As these devices become more intelligent and more interconnected, the opportunities for improving patient outcomes expand dramatically.
However, this transformation also introduces a critical challenge: an unprecedented expansion of the healthcare vulnerability. Cyberattacks targeting medical devices and their supporting ecosystems threaten clinical workflows, compromise sensitive personal data, and place patient safety at risk. Strengthening trust in CMDs is therefore no longer optional; it is a foundational requirement for modern healthcare.
This is the space where ENTRUST operates. The project focuses on redefining how trust, security, and lifecycle assurance are embedded into CMDs. And, in doing so, ENTRUST naturally aligns with the complementary work conducted in TITAN, another Horizon Europe initiative. While TITAN focuses on safeguarding the responsible processing and sharing of sensitive data, ENTRUST ensures that the very devices generating that data are secure, trustworthy, and resilient.
Together, these projects form a powerful synergy that strengthens the entire healthcare data value chain.
ENTRUST is developing a holistic Trust Management Framework designed to secure CMDs across their entire lifecycle, from design and deployment to continuous operation and post-market surveillance. Its ambition is to address the long-standing gaps in CMD cybersecurity without reducing device usability or limiting clinical innovation.
ENTRUST introduces several major advancements:
1. Dynamic Trust Assessment for CMDs
A new dimension of quality for device operation, enabling continuous, real-time evaluation of trustworthiness within a zero-trust paradigm.
2. Security- and Privacy-by-Design
Formally defined trust models and protection profiles reduce the likelihood of zero-day vulnerabilities and emerging threats.
3. Runtime Verification and Post-Market Surveillance
Advanced runtime attestation and cryptographically verifiable security proofs offer ongoing assurance of device integrity.
4. Real-time Conformity Certificates
ENTRUST extends existing certification frameworks (such as those addressed in MDCG 2019-16) to include post-market, evidence-based conformity checks powered by distributed ledger technologies.
5. AI-Driven Misbehaviour Detection
Enhanced lifecycle management of CMDs through intelligent detection of anomalous behaviour, supported by a blockchain-based knowledge hub.
6. Validation in Real Clinical Environments
Four pilots will assess the ENTRUST Framework using both wearable devices and high-end clinical equipment deployed in real-world healthcare settings.
Altogether, ENTRUST's innovations aim to restore confidence in connected healthcare by ensuring that every device can be continuously verified, continuously trusted, and continuously safeguarded.
The TITAN Approach: Secure Data Spaces for Healthcare and Beyond
While ENTRUST concentrates on strengthening device trustworthiness, TITAN focuses on the secure handling and collaborative use of the sensitive data that these devices generate.
TITAN is building an open-source platform for confidential computing, privacy-preserving analysis, and cross-border data sharing, fully aligned with EU ethical, legal, and regulatory frameworks. Its integration within the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) aims to establish a trustworthy environment for research, clinical collaboration, and data-driven innovation.
Where ENTRUST secures the origin of data, TITAN protects its processing, sharing, and reuse.
Complementary Strengths for a Shared Objective
Although the two projects pursue different technical goals, their combined impact is clear.
ENTRUST safeguards the trustworthiness of devices at the edge. TITAN safeguards the trustworthy processing of data in the cloud. Both are essential elements of a secure, ethical, and resilient digital health ecosystem.
Their synergy reinforces a unified European mission:
To ensure that digital health innovation can advance without compromising privacy, safety, or trust.
By jointly communicating their work, ENTRUST and TITAN aim to raise awareness, support policy development, and strengthen Europe’s leadership in secure healthcare technologies.
This blog post was co-written by ENTRUST synergy partner TITAN.
