Insights from the Workshop on Cybersecurity Perspectives in EU Healthcare
On 7 October 2025, the picturesque city of Ljubljana hosted a significant event in the field of digital health cybersecurity. During the final project plenary of CYLCOMED, organised by partner XLAB, a dedicated Workshop on Cybersecurity Perspectives in EU Healthcare took place in parallel, bringing together CYLCOMED, related EU-funded projects, and many other strategic stakeholders, who attended in person and online.
The workshop convened a diverse group of participants, including clinicians, researchers, IT specialists, legal experts, and representatives from health ministries and medical chambers from across Europe. Notable attendees included representatives from the Ministries of Health of Poland, Germany, and Austria, as well as members from the Medical Chamber of Slovenia and various European digital health initiatives.
The session was moderated by Ospedale Pediatrico Bambino Gesù (OPBG), represented by Dr. Alberto Tozzi, Head of Predictive and Preventive Medicine Research Unit, and Dr. Diana Ferro, Healthcare Research Officer and Executive Board Member of SIIAM (Italian Society of AI in Medicine), and opened with an engaging round of introductions. Projects represented included XiA, xShare, NEMECYS, Gravitate-Health, CYMEDSEC, and SECURED. In addition, a representative of HIMSS was also on site, providing the perspective of a major healthcare player, and sharing their priorities within the field.
The CYLCOMED team opened the session by presenting results from its toolbox validation across two pilots, with a focus on Pilot 2 led by OPBG. This was followed by a session on common challenges faced across projects and strategies to address them.
Discussions focused on several key topics at the intersection of healthcare and cybersecurity, including ethical and trustworthy health data sharing in the EU (highlighted by the xShare project); the development of training and credentialing for interoperability standards under the EU Health Data Space (XiA project), and the importance of standardisation and the current developments of the CYMEDSEC project, as youngest project among those represented.
Further contributions included legal and research insights into cybersecurity regulation by the Polish Ministry of Health, with expert input from KU Leuven; reflections on potential joint publications covering cybersecurity tools, documentation, and methodologies; a presentation by INOV (CYLCOMED) on risk management strategies, covering cyber threats, vulnerabilities, attacker-defender perspectives, and the complex challenges cybersecurity presents in healthcare systems.
The workshop concluded with a round table discussion, which led to several key takeaways:
- Urgent need for education and training in cybersecurity for healthcare professionals, with OPBG sharing their successful experience in organising training sessions for clinicians and researchers
- Greater EU-level recognition of the importance of cybersecurity in healthcare, including calls to better connect ministries of health with EU project outcomes
- Exploration of future research collaboration, particularly on topics such as AI in medical devices, patient data protection, and encryption
- Input into guidelines for AI-based tools in CMDs, using real-world use cases as best practices
- HIMSS expressed strong interest in supporting thought leadership and educational initiatives, stressing the importance of making EU project outcomes sustainable and exploitable beyond their funding period
The workshop not only fostered valuable cross-sector collaboration but also highlighted the shared commitment across EU projects to strengthen cybersecurity, interoperability, and trust in Europe’s digital healthcare ecosystem.
If you’d like to know more, the full-length recording of the workshop is available here below:
