A security and privacy preserving e-prescription system based on smart cards

Area of Science:

• Computer Science
• Cryptography
• Health Informatics

Background:

• Previous e-prescription systems (Ateniese & Medeiros, 2002; Yang et al., 2004) utilized smart cards but had limitations in privacy and delegation.
• Yang et al.'s 2004 system incorporated group signatures for privacy and proxy signatures for delegation, yet improvements were sought.
• Existing identity-based systems offer simplified public key management without requiring separate certificates.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose a novel, secure, and privacy-preserving e-prescription system model leveraging smart card technology.
• To introduce a new role, the chemist, to manage medicine disputes within the e-prescription framework.
• To develop and integrate concrete identity-based (ID-based) group and proxy signature schemes for enhanced functionality.

Main Methods:

• Development of a new e-prescription system model incorporating a chemist role.
• Presentation of a novel ID-based group signature scheme enabling anonymous doctor signing with identifiable dispute resolution.
• Presentation of a novel ID-based proxy signature scheme supporting delegation chains for improved signing capabilities.

Main Results:

• The proposed ID-based group signature scheme allows anonymous e-prescription signing by doctors, with traceability for dispute resolution.
• The proposed ID-based proxy signature scheme enhances signing delegation and supports delegation chains.
• The new e-prescription system demonstrates superior practicality and efficiency compared to Yang et al.'s system in security, communication, and computation.

Conclusions:

• The proposed e-prescription system model, fortified by ID-based group and proxy signature schemes, offers enhanced security and privacy.
• The inclusion of a chemist role and advanced cryptographic techniques makes the system more practical and efficient for real-world applications.
• This research advances secure electronic health record management through innovative cryptographic solutions.