A framework for privacy-preserving access to next-generation EHRs

Although personalized medicine is optimizing the discovery, development and application of therapeutic advances, its full impact on patient and population healthcare management has yet to be realized. Electronic health Records (EHRs), integrated with data from other sources, such as social care data, Personal Healthcare Record (PHR) data and genetic information, are envisaged as having a pivotal role in realizing this individualized approach to healthcare. Thus, a new generation of EHRs will emerge which, in addition to supporting healthcare professionals in making well-informed clinical decisions, shows potential for novel discovery of associations between disease and genetic, environmental or process measures. However, a broad range of ethical, legal and technical reasons may hinder the realization of future EHRs due to potential security and privacy breaches. This paper presents a HIPAA-compliant framework that enables privacy-preserving access to next-generation EHRs.