The University of South Wales (USW) and Digital Health and Care Wales (DHCW) are working together on a partnership which gives cyber security students the chance to work on real-life projects to help streamline computer systems used in medical settings.
And one student says the projects will not only help her to develop work-ready skills for when she graduates next year, but also narrow the gender gap in UK the cyber sector, in which just 17% of the workforce are female.
The project has been led by Dr Naveen Madhavan, Lead Product Manager (Healthcare Pathway Workflows) at DHCW, and also a Visiting Fellow at USW. Dr Madhavan is also a former lecturer at the USW-based South Wales Business School.
Dr Madhavan’s involvement with both DHCW and USW inspired him to build a mutually beneficial partnership between the two organisations.
“As a Visiting Fellow I was supervising students and could see that the talent was there to help DHCW, and that we could so much more with it,” he said.
“At DHCW we are offering more than 100 services, and a lot of that takes up all the staffing capacity that we have.
“So I was keen to build a bridge with USW that would help both us and the undergraduates at the University who could get experience of some real-life challenges that were being faced in the cyber sector, and use their individual talents to come up with solutions to some of the challenges we are facing.”
One of the undergraduates working on a DHCW project is second-year Digital Forensics student Bethan Madge, whose focus has been on solving problems caused when incorrect information is given to health service staff by patients, and the confusion that can cause.
“It started by looking at NHS patient identity numbers, and how they can either be duplicated – when one person has multiple NHS numbers – or confused, so two people have the same number,” Bethan said. “Using blogs and specialist websites I was able to get more of an understanding of why that happened and what was already in place.
“Obviously, because of the numbers of people the NHS deals with, this can cause problems at the start, and could possibly continue to spiral as more and more details are added to what are already incorrect data files.
“So I focused on what can be done to make sure the details are correct right from the start, and different systems which can put them right if they contain the wrong information, such as identity verification, patient indices, and data-matching algorithms.”
For Bethan, being part of the DHCW project is also helping to bring more diversity into the cyber sector in more ways than one.
“When I was like looking at what to do after my A-levels, I was thinking about what I wanted to do and the different type of options,” she said.
“I've always been interested in this sort of field, and knew that cyber and computing were lacking in female representation, especially females of colour. I'm half-white, half- Asian, and I know there's a lack of that representation.
“I think it's important to start to have that change, and I really think increasing diversity and bringing in more females is really going to be beneficial, because then you've got more perspective – rather than seeing things from just from one side.”
For Dr Madhavan, the diversity available from the students at USW was also a major benefit of the partnership.
“AT DHCW we have wide experience and ability among the staff, but being able to have the students involved means we can bring in even more knowledge,” he said.
“They have the added time to read things such as journal articles and other external articles, which help us to do things in a different way that could be more beneficial to both sides, and to bring proven solutions to challenges rather than just good ideas.”
Dr Richard Ward, who’s a Lecturer in Cyber Security at USW, said the partnership with DHCW offers a double boost to the university.
“For us, projects like this brings twin benefits – there are cutting-edge research opportunities which enhance our academic reputation, and for students there is employability support through being involved in real-world projects,” Dr Ward said.
“Beyond that, the Welsh region benefits from improved healthcare security, fostering public confidence, and supporting digital transformation.
“Additionally, the initiative promotes economic growth by developing cybersecurity expertise and creating skilled jobs, while positioning Wales as a leader in healthcare cybersecurity policy and innovation.”
