Enriching healthcare applications with cryptographic mechanisms and XML- based security services

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Bourka, A.^{a; *} | Kaliontzoglou, A.^a | Polemi, D.^b | Georgoulas, A.^a | Sklavos, P.^a

Affiliations: [a] National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Athens, Greece | [b] EXPERTNET SA, Athens, Greece

Correspondence: [*] Corresponding author: A. Bourka, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, National Technical University of Athens, 9 Iroon Polytechniou, 15773, Athens, Greece. Tel.: +3 010 7722429; Fax: + 3 010 7722431; E-mail: [email protected].

Abstract: The paper presents the enrichment of an existing e-referral / e-prescription application within a Regional Healthcare Information Network with security functionality, solving current authentication, integrity, non-repudiation and confidentiality issues and thus significantly enhancing the overall system security, operability, applicability and user acceptance. The application makes use of an underlying PKI framework, in order to provide strong authentication, digital signature, encryption and time-stamping services. XML is used for the representation of the healthcare data itself, the encrypted form of this data, as well as the relevant data security information, following W3C standards.

Keywords: healthcare information, electronic document communication, security, PKI, XML

DOI: 10.3233/THC-2003-11106

Journal: Technology and Health Care, vol. 11, no. 1, pp. 61-76, 2003