The healthcare sector is constantly improving
patient health record systems. However, these systems face a
significant challenge when confronted with patient health record
(PHR) data due to its sensitivity. In addition, patient’s data is
stored and spread generally across various healthcare facilities
and among providers. This arrangement of distributed data
becomes problematic whenever patients want to access their
health records and then share them with their care provider,
which yields a lack of interoperability among various healthcare
systems. Moreover, most patient health record systems adopt a
centralized management structure and deploy PHRs to the cloud,
which raises privacy concerns when sharing patient information
over a network. Therefore, it is vital to design a framework
that considers patient privacy and data security when sharing
sensitive information with healthcare facilities and providers.
This paper proposes a blockchain framework for secured patient
health records sharing that allows patients to have full access and
control over their health records. With this novel approach, our
framework applies the Ethereum blockchain smart contracts,
the Inter-Planetary File System (IPFS) as an off-chain storage
system, and the NuCypher protocol, which functions as key
management and blockchain-based proxy re-encryption to create
a secured on-demand patient health records sharing system
effectively. Results show that the proposed framework is more
secure than other schemes, and the PHRs will not be accessible
to unauthorized providers or users. In addition, all encrypted
data will only be accessible to and readable by verified entities
set by the patient.
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Internet of Healthcare Things (IoHT): Towards a Digital Chain of Custody
Smart Internet of Healthcare Things (IoHT) have the potential to transform patient care dramatically at reduced cost. The reality, however, is that there are serious security and privacy concerns that prevent this goal from being accomplished. The vast amounts of data being generated need to be kept secure to prevent harm to patients' health and privacy. For example, a cyberattack on heart rates data could cause patients to be over- or under-prescribed, causing severe consequences, including death. In this new environment, not ensuring a proper digital chain of custody leads to digital forensics challenges that could impact a criminal or malpractice investigation. This project explores enhancements needed to ensure security and privacy when IoHT are to be used in healthcare. A model is proposed to ensure a secure digital chain of custody for IoHT using database auditing techniques. The current status of the proposed concept and future directions are also discussed.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1922169
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10401396
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- 2022 IEEE 10th International Conference on Healthcare Informatics (ICHI)
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 524 to 526
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
-
Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Conference Paper:
- https://doi.org/10.1109/ICHI54592.2022.00097
