Cancer research and treatment innovation - and the tech that powers that - requires collaboration and data sharing among multiple parties. Keeping that sensitive information secure and private is crucial.

One such multi-stakeholder project is CancerX, a national public-private initiative hosted by Advocate Health and Moffitt Cancer Center that is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' InnovationX program.

Privacy and security consulting firm Clearwater is partnering with CancerX to deliver enterprise-grade security standards to the IT systems and other technologies used for the ambitious digital oncology collaboration, said Clearwater president Baxter Lee.

Among the biggest impediments to ambitious medical innovation collaborative efforts like CancerX is "a breakdown of trust between innovators and adopters of cancer care," Lee said during an interview with Information Security Media Group during the HIMSS26 conference in Las Vegas.

The aim of the partnership between CancerX and Clearwater launched in February is to bridge that trust gap, he said.

"Every health system looks at cybersecurity requirements slightly differently. The start-ups have limited resources to adapt to that and don't have the expertise to build out [cyber] programs to map to all the hospitals they would like to do business with," he said.

"Our goal is to create a common security standard across multiple hospital systems … and help those innovators build in minimum [cyber] standards from the ground up."

In the interview (see audio link below photo), Lee also discussed:

• Details pertaining to the mission of the CancerX consortium;
• The types of digital technology and other innovations, including artificial intelligence-enabled tools, that are part of CancerX;
• Challenges involving governance around AI.

Lee is president of Clearwater. Prior to being promoted to president in September 2025 he served as Clearwater's chief financial officer since May 2018. He is responsible for leading the company’s strategic growth plan and managing the company’s overall operations. Before that, Lee was CFO of Entrada Health, a mobile health documentation and productivity platform for healthcare providers, acquired by NexGen Healthcare in 2017. Prior to that, Lee held multiple positions with Change Healthcare - formerly known as Emdeon. His roles included divisional CFO of the ambulatory and payer services divisions and director of corporate development. He focused on mergers, acquisitions and corporate strategy across Emdeon’s four operating divisions.