Security standards compliance and ease of use of high performance computing systems in clinical research

Abstract

Precision health research and personalized health therapies involve analysis of protected health information. In 2007, Indiana University established the ability to analyze protected health information (HIPAA alignment) as the minimal and default security level for its research high performance computing (HPC) systems and research storage systems. This resulted in a drastic increase in the use of IU HPC systems by clinical researchers. Security levels were later upgraded to FISMA Low as a default. We recommend that, within the US, FISMA (Federal Information Security Modernization Act) Low compliance be the default minimal level of security for large-scale HPC systems. This would facilitate precision medicine research and enable higher education HPC resources to be used in response to future civil health emergencies.