Incorporating security into electronic health records based healthcare systems with wireless sensor networks

Incorporating security into electronic health records based
healthcare systems with wireless sensor networks

The potential for applying electronic health record (EHR), electronic medical record (EMR) and healthcare wireless sensor network (HWSN) in the healthcare (HC) industry is tremendous and boundless. However, the security and privacy issues of HC data must be addressed with great caution and as must accessibility. EHR system security and privacy are related to the confidentiality of protected health information (PHI), the integrity of EMR data and the authentication/authorisation of users. Furthermore, EHR data is collected and communicated between different users and patients' health data is shared within a system.

Working towards a solution, we have designed a secure and efficient HC application that integrates wireless sensor network (WSN) technology with EMR/EHR technology. First, the general architecture of the HC application system is proposed and then an EMR/EHR repository is described. The novelties of our approach include the introduction of the WSN's application to automatically collect patients' physiological information/data and securely store them as EMR/EHR records in the repository, making the EMR/EHR system more efficient. Second, a number of efficient security technologies including authentication and users' authorisation, and security protocols such as Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC), eXtensible Access Control Markup Language (XACML), have been adopted, modified or designed in our proposed HC application. Thus, security of HC application has been significantly improved and, as a consequence, the patients' privacy has been addressed.

Throughout this study, we have deepened our understanding of the security requirements in HC applications and appreciated the important role played by the latest wireless networking and sensing technology in achieving the security objectives in the modern HC industry. The results of this study include a framework for building secure and efficient HC applications, accompanied by a set of protocols which enable the auto-collection and secure transmission of patients' health and medical information. In addition, we offer two schemes: an authentication scheme for protecting users' identities and privacy and an authorisation scheme for user's differentiated access control (AC) or privileges to the patients' health and/or medical records. These schemes have been theoretically verified.