Secure exchange of electronic health records

Protecting the confidentiality of a patient’s information in a shared care environment could become a

complex task. Correct identification of users, assigning of access permissions, and resolution of conflict

rise as main points of interest in providing solutions for data exchange among health care providers.

Traditional approaches such as Mandatory Access Control, Discretionary Access control and Role-Based

Access Control policies do not always provide a suitable solution for health care settings, especially

for shared care environments. The core of this contribution consists in the description of an approach

which uses attribute-based encryption to protect the confidentiality of patients’ information during the

exchange of electronic health records among healthcare providers. Attribute-based encryption allows

the reinforcing of access policies and reduces the risk of unauthorized access to sensitive information; it

also provides a set of functionalities which are described using a case study. Attribute-based encryption

provides an answer to restrictions presented by traditional approaches and facilitate the reinforcing of

existing security policies over the transmitted data.