How to Choose SD-WAN for Healthcare

Attacks aimed at healthcare organisations have proven very costly for those affected, with some attacks causing tangible impact to patient care. While many healthcare organisations may feel as though they are overburdened with regulation, plenty of security practitioners argue that there aren’t enough.
Choosing the correct infrastructure to provide high-quality patient care, ensure the protection of network resources and improve operational efficiencies sounds daunting, however in this article we look into how Software Defined Wide Area Network (SD-WAN) solutions can offer the networking architecture you need to address these issues.

Healthcare-Specific Network Requirements

The healthcare sector requires constant availability for data, with continuous access to systems for emergency response, patient monitoring devices and electronic health record (EHR) systems to name a few. Traditional networks can be lacking in this feature, with network outages causing delays or even disruptions to systems, which can be a threat to patients experiences and health. This is however mitigated by SD-WAN, which offers the capability to leverage multiple network links, providing advanced failover functionality. Failover minimises network downtime, ensuring critical systems receive an uninterrupted connection via dynamic path selection techniques. These techniques utilise the best performing link based on real-time network metrics, reducing latency and transmission of data over disrupted links.

Not only is the availability of systems critical to healthcare, but so are the confidentiality and integrity of patient data. Regulations such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), which mandates that healthcare providers must protect and correctly handle sensitive patient data. SD-WAN comes with integrated features to meet these needs, such as end-to-end encryption, secure tunnelling and compliance reporting, all of which help maintain the confidentiality of patient data and all regulations are complied with.

Another consideration for healthcare organisations is that they must also consider the scalability and flexibility of their network solutions. As patient data continues to grow rapidly, the network must be able to handle increased data loads without any compromise to performance. Healthcare SD-WAN & SASE platforms offer the scalability needed to adapt to these changes, providing seamless connectivity across various sites and accommodating future growth in data volume and complexity.

Key Healthcare-Specific Features of SD-WAN

Within the healthcare sector there are many considerations and requirements for network administrators that aren’t so prevalent across other industries.

SD-WAN achieves this by implementing dynamic traffic routing and Quality of Service (QoS) to load-balance traffic based on priority. Further to this, SD-WAN can also switch across multiple network underlays to ensure that technologies like remote telehealth are always running across the optimal path, providing real-time data access.

However, whilst prioritising specific traffic types is an important feature, arguably the most important network functionality is the ability to maintain continuous uptime. The aforementioned use of multiple network underlays is essential to SD-WAN offering improved uptime, as by leveraging this capability, redundant underlay can be used in the event of a link outage. This feature's significance is emphasised within the healthcare sector, with potentially severe consequences faced by (typically traditional WAN) networks unable to meet this demand.

Benefits of SD-WAN for Various Healthcare Sectors

One of the more apparent benefits of utilising an SD-WAN solution within a healthcare setting is the scaling capabilities. Offering networks with improvements for branch connectivity, SD-WAN is ideal for amalgamating clinics, laboratories, hospitals and GP practices for greater connectivity between a range of systems and services. Due to SD-WAN utilising a range of network underlay, healthcare providers no longer have to rely on Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) connections, allowing for cheaper alternatives to be aggregated to achieve similar, if not better performance.

For healthcare providers, a continuously growing number of networked devices means that networks are beginning to become overwhelmed with data. With many interconnected healthcare systems, often including IoT devices, sensors and smart healthcare equipment, high volumes of data are continuously generated and transmitted across the network. Unfortunately, bandwidth limitations mean that networks are restricted in the amount of data they can transmit at any given time and therefore this leads to issues such as collisions which result in packet loss. SD-WAN offers healthcare providers with the solution to this issue by often implementing edge computing support packaged in the solution. Edge Computing distributes computation closer to the data source, such as the IoT sensor or smart healthcare equipment, reducing traffic sent to a central hub for processing. By reducing the volume of traffic sent across the network, edge computing significantly lowers latency and reduces bandwidth utilisation – meaning that other critical services can utilise these extra resources for greater performance.

SD-WAN’s optimisations aren’t just limited to basic network optimisations though. SD-WAN enables newer technologies such as telemedicine, allowing for HD video consultations with patients, regardless of whether they are rurally/remotely located.

Access Control 

Arguably the most important facet of network security within the healthcare industry is the restrictions imposed on data access. Without data access, the healthcare industry couldn’t comply with regulations such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the UK. Data access isn’t only limited to regulations though – in a healthcare setting, typically all patient data is strictly confidential and should remain so unless required for diagnosis, treatment or care reasons. This means that healthcare providers have a duty of care to protect patient data from prying eyes, bad actors or malicious threats.

The best way for network administrators in the healthcare industry is to implement functions such as Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA), segmentation and encryption. These features, all typically integrated into SASE and SSE solutions, restrict access to data by:

• Encryption: Removing the ability to read the data without decryption.
• Segmentation: Isolating the data from the rest of the network.
• ZTNA: Refrains from automatically trusting accessor based on user, device or location and continuously requires accessor to re-authenticate themselves in order to gain authorisation and access to data.

These features mean that patient records and sensitive medical data can be adequately protected from unauthorised access. Without them, healthcare networks can struggle to support role-based access, therefore emphasising the importance for healthcare providers to maintain access control.

However, even with access control implementations, healthcare networks are still vulnerable to more sophisticated attacks.

Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs)

One potential form of these sophisticated attacks that can be particularly effective in systems that have neglected to implement role-based access are Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs). APTs infect a network with the sole intention of gaining as much access as possible to different facets of the network over an extended period of time and then stealing data back to an attacker. APTs differ from more traditional attack vectors as they tend to be more complex and are persistent, remaining active after initial access. They also don’t necessarily start malicious activities straight away, with manual startups often being utilised (such as via a wait, trigger or command). By straying from an automated initialisation, APTs can be more subtle, appearing human-led to avoid detection.

APT attacks typically follow the below timeline:

• Reconnaissance: Attacker finds potential vulnerabilities in the network or healthcare provider’s systems.
• Gain Access: The APT is deployed onto the network.
• Lateral Movement: The APT attempts to move across the network laterally, allowing for discovery of access limitations, data of interest and other potential vulnerabilities or weaknesses in the network and underlying infrastructure.
• Exfiltration: Once the APT has finished moving laterally, the process of stealing data can begin. Typically, this is sent to a remote location so that an attacker can then access the data without having to be present or on-site.
• Post-Exfiltration: The clean-up process of the attack. Whilst the APT can remain on the network, either exfiltrating more data or acting as reconnaissance for future attacks, post-exfiltration is usually made up of cover-ups. These cover-ups hide the malicious activity so that its harder for retroactive network scans to pick up on the activity.

With this in mind, network administrators within the healthcare industry must put counter measures in place for defending against reconnaissance and lateral movement, whilst also being able to utilise a dynamic Quarantine and Recovery (QaR) system to address the specific nuances of individual APT threats. By introducing a QaR, healthcare providers can counteract different APT functions and therefore minimise the impact that they can have on the network in the event of a breach.

QaR systems frequently use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to achieve this, with AI allowing for more adaptive responses to issues, rather than static policies or rules which may not catch all behaviours of the APT.

Key Factors to Consider When Choosing SD-WAN for Healthcare

Healthcare networks have become a prime target for cyber attacks, something Synnovis (a private pathology firm that processes blood tests for major London NHS hospitals), the victim of an attack in June 2024, can attest to. Threats created by malicious actors seek patient data, enabling hackers to hold victims to ransom or allowing the information to be sold on dark web marketplaces. This emphasises the importance of securing the network, utilising advanced security protocols, strong encryption and secure access controls – features all provided by SD-WAN solutions.

10 Questions to ask when buying Healthcare Cybersecurity

Healthcare Providers should ask the following cybersecurity questions: 1. Do you have full visibility of the assets across the expanded healthcare network? 2. Do you know the risks inherent in your supply chain? 3. Who needs privileged access to what assets? 4. What data protection regulations do you need to

Netify's SD-WAN & SASE Network Security BlogRobert Sturt

Unlike traditional WAN networks, SD-WAN provides Quality of Service (QoS) management and the functionality to create policies defining critical traffic that requires the most reliable performance. For healthcare providers, QoS enables the ability to prioritise bandwidth-intensive applications, such as telemedicine, radiology imaging and real-time video consultancy, ensuring adequate network resources are provided to these systems in order to prevent any degradation of traffic.

For providers split across multiple sites, such as hospitals, clinics and mobile or remote workforces, it can be very difficult to create network access across these different network edges. However, SD-WAN is geared for multi-branch connectivity, enabling both on-site and remote workforces and providing rapid scalability for new sites and increased data loads.

Not only does SD-WAN offer network improvements, but it can also offer a reduction in operational costs. By being more resourceful about bandwidth usage in comparison to traditional WAN networks, healthcare providers do not have to run dedicated lines between machines. SD-WAN’s managed through a single pane enables remote configuration and management, and when bundled with Zero Touch Provisioning, it enabled scaling to new sites without on-site specialised network administrators. Through reductions in specialised staff, healthcare providers can save costs with a single dedicated team to manage all sites remotely.

When choosing security products, services and vendors, it may seem like every manufacturer and vendor has something specifically geared toward the healthcare industry. While some companies have more healthcare experience than others, the availability of solutions catered to the industry is a great thing because healthcare organisations have to worry about the entire range of cybersecurity threats including some of the most prevalent from ransomware, to IoT security, application security and vendor risk management. So, while there’s no shortage of commercial solutions for every aspect of a healthcare organisation’s cybersecurity needs, it is vital that the organisation adopts a robust cybersecurity framework to align business and regulatory needs with solutions to stay secure and remain compliant.

Supporting Telehealth and Remote Patient Care

SD-WAN supports Telehealth functionalities such as remote consultations by enabling high quality video and audio connectivity, whilst also capable of creating secure connections for sharing patient data during Telehealth sessions. This gives healthcare providers the ability to not only provide real-time video consultations but improves patient access to healthcare services and enables healthcare professionals to deliver timely and accurate diagnoses, even in remote or underserved areas.

The reliability of connections is important for monitoring patients’ health metrics from home, such as with remote monitoring devices that track vital signs, glucose levels, or cardiac rhythms. SD-WAN provides secure transmission of data to centralised health systems, offering improved confidentiality and integrity for the network. This ensures that patient data remains secure while enabling healthcare providers to make informed decisions based on real-time data.

Integrating SD-WAN with Existing Healthcare IT Infrastructure

It is important for IT decision makers at Healthcare providers to select an SD-WAN solution that is not only feature-rich to meet demands, but is also compatible with existing healthcare infrastructure. A seamless integration of SD-WAN with the existing Electronic Health Record (EHR) is essential to minimise potential disruptions during the migration process. This integration ensures that healthcare providers can maintain continuity of care and access to patient records without interruption.

Case Studies: Successful SD-WAN Deployments in Healthcare

SD-WAN deployments in healthcare improve network reliability, security, and patient care across various institutions. For the healthcare industry, it is essential that the network infrastructure is continuously reliable and secure, due to being critical to improving the quality of patient care and providing uninterrupted operations. One way to achieve this

Netify's SD-WAN & SASE Network Security BlogRobert Sturt

Any chosen SD-WAN solution must also support connectivity for a wide range of medical equipment, in order for real-time communications from devices such as MRI machines, infusion pumps and patient monitoring systems. Compatibility with these devices ensures that healthcare providers can leverage the full potential of their medical equipment while maintaining secure and reliable network connections

Integrating SSE (Security Service Edge)

Secure Service Edge (SSE) provides the healthcare industry with the ability to decouple networks from their security measures. Increasingly adopted, SSE reduces the risk of leveraging disparate solutions and ensures that, through the use of a single vendor, that multiple security capabilities are bundled together via a cloud-centric model for ease of integration.

These cloud-based security services, such as Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB), Firewall-as-a-Service (FWaaS), Secure Web Gateway (SWG) and Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA).

These features are essential for the Healthcare industry, who require strict security policies to be enforced across cloud applications. SSE can be particularly beneficial for patient management systems, telemedicine and meeting data privacy and compliance with healthcare regulations.

However, SSE is extended with SASE.

Integrating SASE (Secure Access Service Edge)

SASE combines SSE with the Access (A) of Software-Defined Wide Area Network (SD-WAN) solutions in order to make Secure Access Service Edge.  SD-WAN is used to simplify the management of a network by providing automated traffic routing over several network links, a centralised dashboard for controlling user access, policy management and cloud integrations. By unifying these features, SASE enables efficient connections across distributed and mobile workforces, providing access to the healthcare network based on identity not the connection origin location. This factor means that SASE supports all network edges, reducing the complexity for network administrators and enabling local breakout access to the cloud for more effective use.

Through this increased connectivity, SASE can improve the security of remote medical services and telehealth by unifying security protocols to ensure that patient data is protected both on-premises and across remote facilities.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Network Security

Whilst not a new technology, in recent years Artificial Intelligence (AI) has seemingly been integrated into every aspect of computing and this is also the case for network security.

AI and machine learning algorithms are being implemented in order to improve threat detection and response capabilities. Learning from large datasets and combined threat intelligence, AI can adapt to new threats by learning malicious behaviours, catching even zero-day threats. Within a healthcare setting, AI network security tools analyse network traffic patterns in real-time to detect anomalies that may indicate breaches, malware or APTs that could affect patient care or cause downtime to hospital equipment.

Data Encryption

Encryption is an essential security measure that converts readable patient data (plain text) into cipher text, typically utilising a key or hashing algorithm, so that data can be stored/transmitted in a secure format only accessible by authorised users or systems.

Encryption is therefore an essential capabilities for healthcare networks, obscuring patient data so that the data cannot be read by unauthorised accessors, even in the event of a breach.

Artificial Intelligence is increasingly being used to improve encryption protocols by adapting them in real-time to ongoing threats, which introduces dynamic data protection in comparison to traditional encryption methods.

Essential to complying with regulatory requirements, encryption should be at the forefront of healthcare network design, making SSE/SASE solutions all the more desirable, especially those offering AI-driven dynamic data protection.

Data Loss Prevention (DLP)

In the same way that encryption can protect data even in the event of a breach, Data Loss Prevention (DLP) offers the ability to prevent unauthorised sharing or leakage of sensitive data if an APT or other threat manages to find a way onto the network and attempts to start exfiltrating data.

DLP works by identifying sensitive information within your business network, analysing traffic to pattern match against this sensitive information and stops transmission in its tracks in the event of a match.

For healthcare networks, Data Loss Prevention is a core feature that should be implemented, assisting with minimising the impact any potential breach may cause – which can be heavily tied to regulatory compliance. DLP tools are typically integrated into many SASE solutions and a range of vendors have introduced Artificial Intelligence to continuously update scanning policies. This has consolidated DLP’s capabilities in an industry that is constantly integrating a range of new technologies, such as IoT and telemedicine, allowing for new forms of sensitive information to be quickly identified without human intervention.

Further to this, DLP enables patient data to be kept secure when sharing across hospital departments or with external partners, all of which are transmission points over multiple mediums and lead to potential vulnerabilities for breaches.

Zero Trust Architecture

In the past, the use of in-house system architectures had helped standardise a perimeter-security model. This implies that any device connecting to the network from within the in-house healthcare network should be assumed to be authenticated and thus the network is designed to primarily prevent threats from outside the healthcare network.

Zero Trust is an identity-centric security strategy designed to provide no trust-based access to systems and therefore moves the boundary to be from the system to the connecting device. There are three core principles to Zero Trust:

Electronic Health Record (EHR) Security

According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), in 2022 there were 1463 cyber attacks weekly, with one of the most common targets being Electronic Health Records (EHR). The reason for this being that EHR systems contain such a vast quantity of health history and treatment data, which can be used for a myriad of malicious activities, such as social engineering and ransom. Further to this, any downtime caused by EHR attacks can be severely disruptive to healthcare services, with the average downtime for hospitals at 24 days, with the average cost of $10 million.

This means that protecting EHR systems should be a major consideration for healthcare providers. Luckily SSE & SASE solutions have this covered, offering Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) integrations, allowing networks to protect EHR systems and setup alerts to administrators if suspicious activity is detected. In addition to the firewall, creating access control measures also means that healthcare providers can limit access to EHR data, stopping unauthorised attackers.

Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) Security

IoT (Internet of Things) devices, often coming in the form of sensors and smart devices have changed computing by using vast amounts of data in order to convert analysis of the real-world into digitised formats.

And this is showcased by in the healthcare industry where Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) are increasingly being introduced. IoMT devices include:

• Remote patient monitoring devices,
• Glucose monitors,
• Heart rate monitors,
• Smart inhalers,
• Connected contact lenses,
• Wireless blood pressure monitors,
• Implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs),
• Smart pills,
• Personal Emergency Response Systems (PERS)
• Smart Hospital Equipment

Due to this widespread reliance on IoMT that will surely only continue to grow, implementing security measures for IoMT devices should be a major consideration for healthcare providers.

ZTNA with multi-factor authentication (MFA) methods are ideal for restricting access to the data produced from IoMT devices, whilst device management techniques to maintain software and firmware of IoMT devices are essential best practices.

Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR)

Whilst firewalls are typically ideal for securing IoMT devices, for endpoint devices such as servers, laptops, tablets or handheld devices, Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) is more preferable.

EDR solutions monitor, detect and respond to potential threats across endpoint devices that are used by doctors and staff, ensuring that patient information remains secure from unauthorised access.

Once a threat is detected, EDR analyses its nature and responds by either containing, blocking or rolling back the threat. Containing prevents threats from accessing a wider range of the network, blocking stops transmissions of malicious or exfiltrated patient traffic and roll backs rewind the network to an earlier state.

Telehealth and Remote Care Security

The introduction of Telehealth and Remote Care has eased restrictions previously imposed on patients that previously had to go into a clinic or hospital for treatment. However, by connecting remote or mobile workforces, equipment and sensors, healthcare providers are essentially extending their network edges, exposing a greater attack plane that must be protected.

Whilst the US Department of Health and Human Services provides privacy and security tips for patients, one way that healthcare providers can protect against these is with SSE and SASE security. By integrating encryption from SASE, telehealth services can provide encrypted connections to networked systems, regardless of the geographical location that the remote care workforces are accessing from.

Network Segmentation

Network segmentation is the process of isolating network traffic, applications or data into their own subsections of the network. Often considered as a foundational security strategy, segmentation can be utilised to improve network performance and also to prevent lateral movement in the event of a breach.

Network segmentation has been adopted into many SD-WAN and SASE solutions and provides a shift from static VLAN to a dynamic, policy-based approach. Whilst VLANs are effective, SD-WAN mitigates their limitations in flexibility and cost-efficiency through easily configurable software configuration-based segmentations.

For the healthcare industry, network segmentation is essential for isolating sensitive patient data, research databases and equipment traffic from general administrative traffic, minimising the amount of exposed attack planes and minimising potential breaches.

Phishing and Social Engineering Prevention

Phishing and Social Engineering go hand-in-hand for arguably some of the most powerful tools in an attacker’s arsenal. These are tactics built to exploit vulnerabilities in humans rather than computer systems, by pretending to be someone or something they’re not in an attempt to gain trust or access to a restricted system.

Although email filters and similar techniques are simple solutions for more basic prevention, phishing and social engineering doesn’t have to be computer-based. Any forms of deception or information exfiltration are examples of phishing and social engineering,

Therefore, the best way to prevent against social engineering and phishing is to focus primarily on the deception and exploitation of a workforce, rather than dedicated computer-based restrictions. This means that workforces should undertake rigorous training to teach them what to look out for, the importance of securing the network and the principles of verifying before trusting.

Once achieved, healthcare providers should then look to implement computer-based techniques, such as AI-powered email filters, which detect and block phishing emails that are targeting healthcare employees before they even get the chance to read them.

Alongside training and filtering, using Zero Trust Architecture within SASE allows for the network to constantly re-authentication accessors, therefore nullifying attackers' attempts to phish for credentials.

Ransomware Protection

In Microsoft’s Digital Defence Report 2024,  389 US-based healthcare institutions were successfully hit with ransomware, which caused a range of issues, such as network and system downtime, critical medical operations delayed and appointments rescheduled.

When considering this, healthcare institutions should ensure that they are implementing adequate ransomware protection in order to prevent such occurrences, stopping files from being encrypted and held for payment.

As these attacks are often aimed at the most critical systems within healthcare networks, implementing AI-based threat detection and SASE solutions to isolate these systems, utilise a Zero-Trust architecture and find potential threats before they can encrypt files for ransom.

Incident Response Planning

Whilst preventing breaches is ideal, it is unrealistic to expect that no breach will ever happen, especially with such a targetable asset such as a healthcare network containing patient data. This means that having a strong incident response plan is essential to minimising damage and impacts caused by a breach.

One example of this is leveraging AI for predictive analysis and real-time threat responses, allowing healthcare providers to minimise disruptions to patient care and restrict the volume of exfiltrated or ransomed data.

Another example should be a set of written instructions that outlines how network administrators should respond in the event of a security incident. The goal of the IRP is to limit potential damage that healthcare providers may face, including stolen patient data or equipment downtime.

Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)

A Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) solution is used to collect and analyse data security in order to monitor and respond to potential threats. More recent iterations of SIEM solutions have introduced Artificial Intelligence, which can more dynamically assess for potential threats, including zero-day threats, due to the ability to comprehend their actions and the threats they pose even if the exact threat-skillset hasn’t yet been seen before.

This is important for the healthcare industry as AI-powered SIEM protection can manage and analyse logs from connected medical devices/systems, allowing for identification of suspicious patterns before they get the chance to escalate.

Medical Device Patch Management

One of the main reasons that potential vulnerabilities and exploits arise is due to issues with firmware that becomes exposed over time. Typically, to rectify these issues, providers of the devices/software, release updates to patch over these exploits in order to maintain security. Unfortunately, these updates may not be automatically rolled out, which can lead to unmanaged vulnerabilities popping up over time within a healthcare network.

Whilst device patching can be managed by humans, we would argue that a more effective technique is to utilise AI-driven patch management tools to handle the bulk of the update management process, alleviating manual work and allowing for administrators to monitor patch management at a high-level.

By using AI-driven patch management tools, healthcare providers can ensure that connected medical equipment stays updated, reducing the risk of there being exposed vulnerabilities to attack/exploited.

Regulatory Compliance (e.g. HIPAA, GDPR)

It’s important for network administrators within the healthcare sector to maintain regulatory compliance, an issue that is only emphasised by differences in regulations from one geographical region to the next. Our focus matrix below highlights on just some of the major differences in legislation between the UK and North America, with GDPR and NHS Digital guidelines providing the UK with the majority of their regulations and for North America HIPAA dictates US regulations and PIPEDA for Canada.

NHS Digital Standards

NHS Digital Standards form the regulatory backbone for all healthcare technology implementations across the UK, stipulating that healthcare data and medical records are collected, managed and exchanged consistently and securely throughout the NHS and social care sector.

The NHS Digital standards encompass seven critical domains including Information Standards, Technical Standards, Clinical Risk Management, and Security and Data Protection requirements. The standards work collectively to ensure interoperability, clinical safety, data protection and accessibility, creating a secure environment where technology supports better staff and patient satisfaction.

Data Security & Protection Toolkit (DSPT)

The Data Security and Protection Toolkit (DSPT) is an online self-assessment tool used by all organisations that access or process NHS patient data and systems. The primary purpose of the DSPT is to help these organisations measure and demonstrate their compliance with key data security and information governance requirements set by the Department of Health and Social Care, given that healthcare regulations dictate that NHS systems must protect patient information from data breaches.

NIS Regulations & GDPR

The Network and Information Systems (NIS) Regulations 2018 are a set of UK laws designed to improve security and resilience of networked systems - with UK-based healthcare having to utilise the appropriate measures to manage their cyber and information infrastructure against security risks.

UK Data Protection (ICO / GDPR) and Access Management

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) governs the collection, storage, processing and sharing of personal data. Processing of data must satisfy both an Article 6 condition (for personal data) and an Article 9 condition (for special category data, such as health information). The ICO is the UK’s independent regulator for data protection, responsible for enforcing the Data Protection Act 2018 and GDPR.

Different Aspects of Healthcare's Digital Protection Regulations From UK and North America

The requirements mean that IT and administrative staff must be trained on how SD-WAN security protocols are intrinsically linked to UK and North American regulations. The result is that the configuration and deployment of SD-WAN must not be conducted in isolation — the IT team must work closely with healthcare compliance experts. There are managed service providers or professional services companies that can help ensure your business remains compliant when deploying SD-WAN.

Healthcare Requirements & How SD-WAN Achieves Them

However, it is important to also ensure that healthcare IT and administrative staff receive adequate resources and training for SD-WAN security protocols. This is a major consideration as, especially with some solutions that may be lacking customisability, administrators will need to be aware of how their SD-WAN solution will need to be configured to meet all of the regulatory requirements.

Whilst considering training, for larger healthcare organisations it’s important to introduce customised training for multi-location healthcare systems on secure management and compliance best practices. This is important due to the complexity of storing sensitive data across multiple locations, further made more complex by differences in geographical regulations for the industry.

Key Network Deployment Priorities in Healthcare SD-WAN

Clinic-to-Core Connectivity

Through dynamic path selection, link aggregation and backup connection capabilities, SD-WAN enables resilient, high-speed links between remote clinics, GP surgeries and core hospital data centres. Often utilising a mix of broadband, 4G/5G and MPLS, SD-WAN allows for uninterrupted access to central EHR systems and health databases. For example, Norfolk Community Health & Care connected over 150 sites with SD-WAN, gaining improved performance and reduced outages.

The Need For Consistent Security Policies to Prevent Data Breaches

When deploying across multiple sites (or trusts), healthcare providers should consider their security policies to prevent breaches of data. One way this can be achieved is through consistent security policy making - which is made all the more easier through SD-WAN implementation.

Secure Remote Access (and Access Control)

With the growing use of telehealth services, SD-WAN provides the necessary infrastructure to facilitate secure, high-performance access to clinicians working remotely. SD-WAN often integrates zero-trust models, identity solutions and encrypted tunnels, ensuring remote staff access clinical systems safely and efficiently, with policy-based controls to protect patient data and meet regulatory compliance.

Utilising Network Segmentation To Limit Cyber Attacks

To protect patient data and comply with regulations, healthcare providers must isolate clinical, administrative, guest and IoT network traffic, therefore in the unfortunate event of a breach, the issue is contained and cannot 'leak' into other networked systems.

Cloud and Multicloud Connectivity

Cloud services used for EHR, telemedicine and analytics. SD-WAN provides direct secure access, reducing latency.

Case Studies of SD-WAN in Various Healthcare Settings

The greatest testament to the importance of implementing SD-WAN in the healthcare sector is successful case studies.

The first of these being Sentara Healthcare, who implemented Equinix SD-WAN. For Sentara, who are based in North America, issues with high volumes of patient connections were becoming more and more apparent, especially for systems like their online portals and telemedicine. These systems were prone to either higher volumes of traffic or more resource-greedy traffic (in the case of HD video telemedicine). Deploying Equinix SD-WAN allowed Sentara to address these issues, with support for utilising hybrid multi-cloud solutions for other network aspects. By introducing SD-WAN, Sentara improved their networks resilience to traffic demands across hospitals, allowing for higher availability to patient records, greater overall uptime of networked resources and failover mechanisms to prevent downtime in the event of high traffic volumes.

Our next example, Bupa Health Clinics in the UK, implemented Cisco Meraki SD-WAN in order to improve their network reliability and security across a large volume of branches. Bupa have over 45 health centres, with hundreds of further dental centres and care homes across the UK – meaning that interconnecting such a high volume of sites successfully was at the forefront of requirements with their SD-WAN solution. Bupa required that, across all sites, each branch performed consistently and could easily access cloud-based health management systems, with minimised latency. By implementing Cisco Meraki, Bupa Health gain centralised, secure management across all of their sites, making policy changes and new site integration far easier than with their old networking system. The improved network visibility and more efficient resource management meant that networked systems and data gained greater availability, with improved data security owing to the policy consistencies.

Similar to Bupa, Nuffield Health are one of the UK’s leading healthcare organisations, however, differs by being not-for-profit. Nuffield adopted Fortinet's offering in order to integrate their numerous healthcare facilities, providing a seamless and secure connection for their electronic health record (EHR) systems. Integrating Nuffield’s EHR systems has been integral for improved sharing of data and collaboration amongst healthcare professionals, allowing for better patient care from distributed systems and locations. Introducing Fortinet SD-WAN also enhanced Nuffield Health’s ability to manage and secure their network, with features such as encryption, privileged access and segmentation, each of these improve the confidentiality and integrity of patient data by protecting it from breaches. This was essential for Nuffield Health to remain compliant with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), amongst other regulatory requirements.

In North America Universal Health Services (UHS) is one of the largest hospital management companies, with acute care and behavioural health offices.

For UHS, being able to implement and scale telehealth services across many locations was highly important. Due to this, UHS had focused their attention towards their bandwidth utilisations and had noted that their outdated network lacked the bandwidth availability in order to meet demands for video conferencing. Further to this, UHS also desired local breakout capabilities in order to harness cloud applications in a HIPAA compliant manner. By moving to an SD-WAN solution, UHS became able to scale their Zoom-based telehealth services across over 400 locations, primarily due to the bandwidth management capabilities that SD-WAN offered them. This bandwidth management prioritised the telehealth traffic, allowing for higher quality calls, whilst the implementation of local breakouts meant that cloud applications could be harnessed within the security limitations that HIPAA compliance requires.

Guidance for UK Healthcare IT Decision-Makers

SD-WAN provides the foundation for secure remote access, supporting clinicians and staff working outside traditional facilities. Solutions with integrated Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) and UK-based client support minimise latency whilst maintaining security compliance with NHS Digital guidelines.

In response to increasing cyber-attacks on NHS Trusts, SD-WAN solutions should incorporate necessary security features to combat them. Integration with Secure Access Service Edge services provides centralised security management across all sites. Implementation should include redundant links at essential sites and DDoS protection.

SD-WAN can bridge traditionally separate networks, aligning with NHS England's "One Network" vision. Solutions should support multi-domain networking and therefore it's ideal to select access-agnostic solutions compatible with newer technologies such as IoT, AI and 5G.

Utilise the expertise of Information Governance and IT security teams during procurement to ensure solutions meet DSPT, GDPR and NIS requirements. You should also look to mandate appropriate logging, encryption standards and resilience testing to ensure your network system doesn't fall foul of regulations.

Vendor Comparison (Leading SD-WAN solutions for UK healthcare providers)

Managed Service Providers (Leading MSPs delivering SD-WAN to UK healthcare)

Future-Proofing Healthcare Networks with SD-WAN

As healthcare embraces IoT devices for patient monitoring and smart hospital systems, as well as Artificial Intelligence (AI) driven diagnostics and personalised medicine, the SD-WAN solution should be capable of supporting these advancements. The integration of IoT devices in healthcare can lead to improved patient outcomes, operational efficiencies, and cost savings. Therefore, it is essential that the SD-WAN infrastructure can handle the increased data traffic and provide secure connectivity for these devices.

Finally, the scalability of SD-WAN to meet future increases in the volume of data handling is an essential feature, enabling support for new healthcare applications and innovative healthcare delivery models such as home healthcare and mobile health units to be supported. This scalability ensures that healthcare organisations can continue to innovate and expand their services without being constrained by their network infrastructure.

Choosing SD-WAN for Healthcare

Conclusion

As networks are becoming ever-more crucial to healthcare providers, both for general operations and for regulatory compliance, it is difficult for the IT decision makers at healthcare providers to find a solution to fit all problems. With a need to enhance security, support telehealth services, integrate with existing network infrastructure and future-proof their networks, the best choice has to be SD-WAN, which offers resolutions for each of these issues.

Harry Yelland

Cybersecurity Writer

Harry holds a BSc (Hons) in Computer Science from the University of East Anglia and is ISC2 Certified in Cybersecurity (CC). He serves as a Cybersecurity Writer here at Netify, where he specialises in enterprise networking technologies. With expertise in Software-Defined Wide Area Networks (SD-WAN) and Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) architectures, Harry provides in-depth analysis of leading vendors and network solutions.

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Netify's SD-WAN & SASE Network Security BlogHarry Yelland