Modernizing Federal Healthcare

The Challenge

Since 1978, our client's critical Electronic Health Record (EHR) system has evolved into more than 130 versions that created a system so large and complex, no enterprise owner or operator can comprehend the system in its entirety. This makes system maintenance, the implementation of strategic improvements, and the eventual transition to a modernized cloud-based system and infrastructure a slow and painful process with high risk for downtime and outages. These 130 unique instances across the nation, have unintentionally created:

• Delays in the delivery of medical services
• Interoperability issues
• Cybersecurity vulnerabilities
• Modernization challenges

This critical EHR system is also written in MUMPS, a coding language which first appeared in 1966. MUMPS is a complex, unconventional programming language that is not understood by the majority of today's engineers, and the number of those engineers with MUMPS expertise dwindles as these professionals retire. 

The client reached out to Rivera Group for a solution to model and analyze all of the 130+ instances down to the MUMPS code-level to identify and resolve all system vulnerabilities to create a standard version prior to modernizing efforts.

The Solution

Rivera Group implemented EAGLE6 software to support the groundwork for modernization. The client recognized a need to automatically identify and track violations in their code to simplify the system to one standard version. To meet this requirement, EAGLE6 ingested the EHR system data, analyzed MUMPS code, identified all vulnerabilities, and tracked remediation efforts.

The client needed to pinpoint the locations of violations of coding standards and practices within the system. EAGLE6 ingested system data and created a visual, comprehensive model within a matter of hours. This provided a complete and interactive view of the EHR system with the ability to analyze each line of code and search for specific violations. 

During the ingestion process, EAGLE6 used vulnerability analysis to automatically analyze the MUMPS code and identify vulnerabilities based on the standards and regulations established by the client. EAGLE6 leveraged publicly available, customer specific data – not relying on any specific source or type of data – to identify and model all data interdependencies. 

With the violations identified, EAGLE6 automatically and continuously modeled and analyzed the evolution and remediation efforts in near-real-time. By maintaining historical analysis, EAGLE6 compared the updated code to previous analysis to maintain end over end remediation efforts. This allowed the client to test their changes and see how many violations were resolved and how many new ones were created without disruption to normal IT operations or service delivery, which dramatically reduced exposure to cyber threats or unplanned downtime. 

The Results

In just a few hours, EAGLE6:

• Analyzed over 57,300,000 lines of code
• Auto-discovered 1,275,552 technical entities
• Modeled over 317,000 data-sharing dependencies
• Generated automated system documentation for quick assessment

Rivera Group has already saved this federal healthcare provider thousands of hours by automating the analysis and planning to remediate critical EHR system vulnerabilities. EAGLE6 automatically identified 686,701 vulnerabilities, which are currently being addressed. EAGLE6 created a pathway to allow the client to successfully meet their modernization schedule.