A linkable identity privacy algorithm for HealthGrid.
The issues of confidentiality and privacy have become increasingly important as Grid technology is being adopted in public sectors such as healthcare. This paper discusses the importance of protecting the confidentiality and privacy of patient health/medical records, and the challenges exhibited in enforcing this protection in a Grid environment. It proposes a novel algorithm to allow traceable/linkable identity privacy in dealing with de-identified medical records. Using the algorithm, de-identified health records associated to the same patient but generated by different healthcare providers are given different pseudonyms. However, these pseudonymised records of the same patient can still be linked by a trusted entity such as the NHS trust or HealthGrid manager. The paper has also recommended a security architecture that integrates the proposed algorithm with other data security measures needed to achieve the desired security and privacy in the HealthGrid context.
Zhang
Ning
N
School of Computer Science, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, UK. nzhang@cs.man.ac.uk
Rector
Alan
A
Buchan
Iain
I
Shi
Qi
Q
Kalra
Dipak
D
Rogers
Jeremy
J
Goble
Carole
C
Walker
Steve
S
Ingram
David
D
Singleton
Peter
P
D000465:Algorithms; D003195:Computer Communication Networks; D016494:Computer Security; D003199:Computer Systems; D003219:Confidentiality; D006801:Humans; D016347:Medical Records Systems, Computerized; D006113:United Kingdom