Facilitating Secure Sharing of Personal Health Data in the Cloud

Abstract

BackgroundInternet-based applications are providing new ways of promoting health and reducing the cost of care. Although data can be kept encrypted in servers, the user does not have the ability to decide whom the data are shared with. Technically this is linked to the problem of who owns the data encryption keys required to decrypt the data. Currently, cloud service providers, rather than users, have full rights to the key. In practical terms this makes the users lose full control over their data. Trust and uptake of these applications can be increased by allowing patients to feel in control of their data, generally stored in cloud-based services.ObjectiveThis paper addresses this security challenge by providing the user a way of controlling encryption keys independently of the cloud service provider. We provide a secure and usable system that enables a patient to share health information with doctors and specialists.MethodsWe contribute a secure protocol for patients to share their data with doctors and others on the cloud while keeping complete ownership. We developed a simple, stereotypical health application and carried out security tests, performance tests, and usability tests with both students and doctors (N=15).ResultsWe developed the health application as an app for Android mobile phones. We carried out the usability tests on potential participants and medical professionals. Of 20 participants, 14 (70%) either agreed or strongly agreed that they felt safer using our system. Using mixed methods, we show that participants agreed that privacy and security of health data are important and that our system addresses these issues.ConclusionsWe presented a security protocol that enables patients to securely share their eHealth data with doctors and nurses and developed a secure and usable system that enables patients to share mental health information with doctors.

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“…The most mentioned is a possible lack of data protection and violation of privacy. Nowadays, it is possible to encrypt data and transfer it via a highly secure line to a server or cloud [23,24]. Further, the right of medical confidentiality and the right to informational self-determination are not violated by the use of telemedicine.…”

mHealth and Application Technology Supporting Clinical Trials: Today’s Limitations and Future Perspective of smartRCTs

“…Data transfer to a cloud or server needs to be encrypted to ensure the best possible protection of highly sensitive patient information. He et al ( 22 ) showed that few Android mHealth apps match these criteria, although technical capabilities are already established: Thilakanathan et al ( 23 ) developed a secure protocol for sharing patient data in clouds, and Silva et al ( 24 ) presented the DE4MHA algorithm for secure encryption. Moreover, data storage needs to be encrypted to protect patient data from unauthorized access.…”

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“…A line of research has been devoted to encryption-based secure data exchange. Thilakanathan et al (64) proposed a secure protocol for users to control the encryption keys for their personal health data, independent of cloud services, which enables patients and health care providers to securely share sensitive medical data. Similar work was proposed by C.-L. Chen et al (65), who utilized the features of mobile devices to support secure medical data exchange in a cloud environment.…”