Threat Management is still a relatively new concept; there is no industry standard definition for it. In fact, the few people who are talking about it right now tend to view it from at least two very different perspectives – one a product focused approach to unifying perimeter security tools and two, a practice-focused management paradigm. As it evolves, Threat Management will eventually encompass both of those perspectives and will likely become perhaps the single most important element within any given Cyber Security solution.

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SemTechBiz is Less Than 2 Weeks Away

The Semantic Tech & Business Conference (SemTechBiz) is coming to San Francisco on June 3-7! Join us for case studies, innovative panels, tutorials, and keynotes that will provide you with practical advice, hands-on guidance, and breakthrough approaches to solving business problems with semantic technology. Passes go up $200 at the door. Sign up now and save !

Much if not all of the discussion over the past two years in regards to Healthcare Modernization has revolved around the deployment of Electronic Health Records (EHR) systems. Monies were budgeted to EHR adoption in last year’s Stimulus package and more monies will be allocated towards EHR adoption as a result of the recent Healthcare Reform package. So what does this all mean in regards to Intelligent Healthcare and the application of Semantic technology? First we’ll need to take a closer look at EHRs.

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In part 1 of the Cyber Security and Semantics series we discussed some of the highlights of how or where semantics may help transform the practice of Cyber Security. To understand the full implications of why Semantics and Semantic Technology is so crucial for Cyber Security we need to examine more of the problem space associated with.

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Over the past twenty years, a number of standards groups have arisen to develop, manage or reconcile Healthcare data or IT-related standards. Much of the focus over the past decade has been dedicated specifically to data exchange standards and identifying standard data elements for various sub-domains of Healthcare practice automation. The primary standards bodies involved in these activities include but are not limited to the following organizations:

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Over the past two years I’ve tried very hard to help define the potential application for this technology area in the context of Information Technology disciplines or problem spaces – out of those efforts has come a focus on:

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Integration is more than the coding of application or data interfaces. When dealing with complex integration within or across enterprises, there must be sufficient discipline to achieve reproducible results. Furthermore, that discipline must be tailored to the unique requirements of the domain/s in question. Few domains are as complex as Healthcare. Even more important perhaps is that integration cannot be viewed outside of the context of the outcomes within the domains they are meant to serve. Technical success may not translate to process or performance improvement if the relationships between domain goals and enabling technologies aren’t properly understood. Some of the basic concepts associated with our IH include the following:

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There are still many folks out there wondering exactly how Semantic Technology can add value within mainstream solutions architectures and practices. This is something that I’ve spent the last three years working on, specifically developing a set of IT practices which leverages an underlying methodology that we’ve discussed here before called “Semantic Integration” (SI). SI can be applied to any functional or industry domain because what it really represents is the first philosophical breakthrough for enterprise integration in decades. Some people may feel that SOA represented a similar breakthrough, but in fact it hasn’t. The reason SOA has fallen short is because of continued misunderstanding as to where the application architecture began and the middleware and data architecture ended. Semantic Integration avoids this critical flaw by virtue of the fact that it supports every tier of the architecture and is relevant in both horizontal and vertical dimensions. One of the most exciting practices that we’ve built atop Semantic Integration is dedicated to improving Cyber Security through unification of the many IT security stovepipes.  

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