Volpara Health elevates breast cancer prevention, guards sensitive data with connected Microsoft Security solutions

Harnessing the power of data to save lives

Usually, a mammogram is a few moments of discomfort followed by a sigh of relief at a normal result. More than 2 million women and a rare number of men who receive a breast cancer diagnosis, however, rely on early detection for the best possible chance at recovery and survival. That’s why New Zealand health technology software company Volpara Health focuses on improving early detection and prevention.

Volpara’s first product derived from the discovery that denser breast tissue—prevalent in about half the women over age 40 in the United States—can camouflage cancers from mammography. The company’s software uses AI technology to better understand a woman’s breast cancer risk. The company is the preferred partner of leading healthcare institutions around the world. Used in over 2,000 facilities, its software helps providers conduct more than 3 million cancer risk assessments yearly and has assessed the breast density of more than 15 million women.

Volpara’s study of mammography data—72 million images and counting—has resulted in more than 400 research papers furthering its understanding of breast cancer. That progress is crucial to help prevent the harm not just to women, but to everyone who depends on them.

The word whānau, the Māori word for three or four generations of extended family, expresses a concept so vital to New Zealand life that it’s now commonly used by the country’s English speakers and is used in official publications. “Every part of society is affected when a woman is diagnosed with breast cancer,” says Tana Isaac, Executive Vice President of Product and Technology at Volpara Health. “Whānau describes the deep family connections that suffer when a woman becomes ill. Breast cancer costs the healthcare system, too.” Volpara uses a highly personalized approach. “Developing an understanding of a patient’s personal breast cancer risk in order to tailor an individualized approach to risk management and screening for the disease is one of the special things that Volpara does,” he adds.

Delivering a holistic suite of breast cancer detection and prevention software solutions

Providing the best possible breast cancer screening service hinges on maintaining a flawlessly connected web of imaging devices and information technology systems. The Volpara product suite traverses the entire screening and diagnostic workflow from the moment a woman is invited to the clinic to the moment she obtains her results. Those complex dataflows begin with digital collection of patient data to enable automated calculation of cancer risk before the exam. When a woman arrives for her mammogram appointment, her health data flows between connected systems to enable clinical staff to flawlessly navigate her through the process. Her breast X-rays are captured as Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) image files by mammography machines. Volpara’s system, based on Microsoft Azure IoT, uses computer vision and machine learning to analyze the DICOM data from those mammography machines almost instantaneously, providing image quality feedback that the mammography technologist uses to optimize the exam. Radiologists then read the images, using the breast tissue composition insights provided by Volpara AI to increase early diagnoses while fine-tuning and improving recommendations for each case. The data flows to medical record systems that patients may directly access.

Throughout the process, Volpara Health ensures that all data is protected, securing data and medical records in compliance with applicable regulations, including the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). “Security and patient privacy is top of mind for Volpara,” says Isaac. “We created our innovative platform on the Microsoft Azure IoT framework and we’re intensifying our data safety approach on Microsoft Defender for IoT.”

The diversity of platforms and operating systems in customers’ device ecosystems complicates management of this critical process. Previously, customers spent long hours manually patching their operating systems to ensure that medical software could function safely and without interruption. Security teams faced high volumes of noise from monitoring systems. The resulting alert fatigue drove the search for an automated solution that focused on identifying real threats. “We took a new approach to our customers’ previously time-consuming system management and deployed the Azure IoT framework to manage the software in our virtual appliances in their datacenters,” explains Isaac. Additionally, the team leverages Microsoft Defender for Cloud to manage all the alerts. “That process improvement is key to enhancing our product and constantly upgrading its quality, robustness, and security.” He adds, “We seamlessly monitor the health of our customers’ systems from our cloud infrastructure.”

As the number of Azure IoT instances managed by Volpara has grown significantly, so have increasingly sophisticated cyberthreats in the healthcare industry. Seeking advanced protection specifically geared to those devices, Volpara chose Defender for IoT plus Microsoft Sentinel and Microsoft Defender for Endpoint for a holistic solution that brings together SIEM, XDR, and IoT protection.

Choosing to collaborate with Microsoft

In the absence of a fully interoperable IoT device monitoring system, the Volpara team found itself overwhelmed with what Isaac describes as a lot of noise and little reliable signal. Wanting to keep the team focused on active real threats, he worried about the time needed to cast aside false alarms and the lack of visibility over the entire, complex estate. That would mean replacing manual, reactive processes with intelligent automation.

When Volpara began modernizing its security solution, it compared Microsoft with CrowdStrike. “Ease of management and interoperability with our Azure solutions are crucial from a development perspective, which gave Microsoft the edge,” says Isaac. “Our goal is to automate more response activities for real threats in real time.” Evaluating Defender for IoT, his team recognized that it could achieve that effectiveness while also gaining new visibility into a vast and complex estate. “Defender for IoT was designed to work seamlessly with the Azure IoT framework, a fundamental building block of our solution,” says Isaac. “Having the confidence that it would easily plug in to our wider Azure infrastructure was hugely appealing. And because it connects with Microsoft Defender for Cloud and Microsoft Sentinel, we can have centralized visibility across our fleet of diverse appliances.” Adds Shane Lester, Head of Product at Volpara Health, “This is precious data for a pivotal time in a patient’s life. That’s why we chose Microsoft, which closely aligns with our vision as we extend a platform that will grow with advances in medical detection technology and risk management.”

Weaving a protective net around Azure IoT solutions

Volpara envisions an improved degree of ease in protecting IoT devices that wasn’t possible before. “Defender for IoT cuts out noise to give engineers a much clearer signal to work with,” says Isaac. “This is critical to keep busy security teams focused on real and active threats rather than false alarms.” In concert with Microsoft Sentinel and Defender for Endpoint, Defender for IoT increases the effectiveness of the entire environment. “We look forward to achieving a single plane of visibility across our fleet of virtual appliances with Microsoft Defender for IoT and Microsoft Sentinel,” adds Isaac. “We’re also excited about the proactiveness we can bring to our customers because we’ll finally be able to use automation to respond to threats as they occur.”

The highly connected environments that Volpara customers rely on—a diverse range of equipment types, clinical information systems, and vendors—makes security nonnegotiable. “Defender for IoT was built for the technology we use and was designed for our use case, unlike the generic technologies available from other vendors,” says Isaac.

As it has done since the beginning, Volpara focuses on the human factor. “We deal with a lot of sensitive data as we work to reduce or end late-stage breast cancer diagnoses,” concludes Isaac. “Securing that data and managing it as effectively as possible is the right thing to do, and it’s crucial to our support for a woman going through a critical life event.”

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