title: A linkable identity privacy algorithm for HealthGrid.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: School of Computer Science, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, UK. nzhang@cs.man.ac.uk
authors.forename: Ning
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Alan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rector
authors.forename: Iain
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Buchan
authors.forename: Qi
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.forename: Dipak
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Kalra
authors.forename: Jeremy
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Rogers
authors.forename: Carole
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Goble
authors.forename: Steve
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Walker
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Ingram
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Singleton
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D003195:Computer Communication Networks; D016494:Computer Security; D003199:Computer Systems; D003219:Confidentiality; D006801:Humans; D016347:Medical Records Systems, Computerized; D006113:United Kingdom