Towards Secure Healthcare 4.0: Zero-Trust Based Continuous Authentication Framework Using Biometric Pulse Data

The rapid evolution of healthcare systems into cloud–edge enabled Medisphere Networks has enhanced real-time patient monitoring, diagnosis, and service delivery. However, the increasing integration of heterogeneous devices, sensors, and communication channels in healthcare systems expands the attack surface, exposing sensitive medical data to a range of cyber threats. To address this challenge, we propose a Zero-Trust Medisphere Network framework employing continuous, multi-stage authentication to secure communication across all layers. The framework introduces a three-tier strategy: lightweight HMAC-based mutual authentication (widely adopted in secure IoT systems) for Device-to-Device (D2D) communication; biometric pulse-sensor verification inspired by recent healthcare IoT studies for Device-to-Edge (D2E) interaction; and ECC-based cryptographic signatures for secure communication in Edge-to-Cloud (E2C) transmissions. By treating every entity as untrusted and enforcing ongoing verification, the model ensures confidentiality, integrity, and resilience while maintaining low communication and computation overhead. This layered approach delivers an efficient, scalable solution for safeguarding patient-centric data, providing a robust foundation for next-generation secure cloud–edge healthcare ecosystems.