Securing Electronic-Health Record Systems Using Cryptographic Techniques

Abstract

The successful storage, manipulation and retrieval of electronic medical records are some of the important functions of Electronic-Health Record (EHR) Systems. More so, the confidentiality and integrity of health information is of paramount importance to healthcare management organizations. Unfortunately, the occurrence of information security breaches with regards to EHR, which include loss of valuable data as a result of theft by unauthorized users, is increasingly becoming worrisome situations. Furthermore, these security challenges have led to cases of intentional or unintentional disclosure of vital patients’ information among others. Interestingly, previous studies attempted to implement secure systems in domains like finance, communication and commerce using asymmetric or visual cryptography. However, based on reviewed literatures, this security techniques are yet to be combined and applied as worthwhile approach to address authorization challenges in the EHR domain. Thus, a prototype web-based e-health record system was developed and combination of asymmetric and visual cryptographies were incorporated into the system as authorization mechanism to ensure confidentiality and integrity of pertinent health information. Subsequently, the fortified E-health record system provided important functionalities of a typical EHR record system, as well as prevent unauthorized users from accessing vital information.