Accomplishing More With Less: The Practice of Cybersecure Health Technology Design Among Danish Startups

While innovative health technologies have the capacity to better lives, their success hinges, increasingly, on their cybersecurity. Recent years have seen growing awareness of cybersecurity as not only technical but cultural in nature. And yet, how health technologies are developed is also changing — innovation today often led by startups, about whose cybersecurity efforts we know less, and whom might be most at risk. Striving to address this essential gap in knowledge, we present findings from a mixed-methods, design-led study of nine Danish health technology startups and six cybersecurity experts’ experiences. Through analysis of interviews and workshops, we contribute insight into startups’ perceptions of cybersecurity as essential yet often elusive, one amongst many priorities, and often a self-taught discipline. Drawing on this knowledge, we describe the co-design of a self-assessment platform to support increased awareness and preparedness among health technology startups, concluding with implications for future cybersecurity initiatives.