Traditional security measures -- like cryptography or encryption
-- can be expensive, time-consuming, and computing-intensive. Binghamton
researchers encrypted patient data using a person's unique electrocardiograph
(ECG) -- a measurement of the electrical activity of the heart measured by a
biosensor attached to the skin -- as the key to lock and unlock the files.
"The ECG signal is one of the most important and common
physiological parameters collected and analyzed to understand a patient's'
health," said Jin. "While ECG signals are collected for clinical
diagnosis and transmitted through networks to electronic health records, we
strategically reused the ECG signals for the data encryption. Through this
strategy, the security and privacy can be enhanced while minimum cost will be
added."
Essentially, the patient's heartbeat is the password to access
their electronic health records. The identification scheme is a combination of
previous work by Jin using a person's unique brain print instead of traditional
passwords for access to computers and buildings combined with cyber-security
work from Guo and Chen.
"This research will be very helpful and significant for
next-generation secure, personalized healthcare," said Jin. Since an ECG may change due to age, illness or injury -- or a
patient may just want to change how their records are accessed -- researchers
are currently working out ways to incorporate those variables.
Name : Titiksh Kumar
Class : BCA-II
