Secure Sharing of mHealth Data Streams through Cryptographically-Enforced Access Control

Area of Science:

• Health Informatics
• Computer Science
• Cryptography

Background:

• Mobile-health (mHealth) data sharing is crucial for personalized care.
• Existing methods often lack granular control and robust privacy protections.
• Data silos across devices and applications hinder interoperability.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce ShareHealth, a novel system for secure and user-controlled mHealth data sharing.
• To address privacy concerns by enabling selective data access based on user-defined policies.
• To overcome limitations of current mHealth data management systems.

Main Methods:

• Developed a scalable and practical system for access-control policy specification.
• Implemented cryptographic enforcement mechanisms for data decryption based on permissions.
• Designed a system to handle the temporal nature of mHealth data streams, including access revocation.

Main Results:

• ShareHealth successfully applies cryptographically-enforced access control to stream-based mHealth data.
• The system supports temporal access control and revocation for data streams.
• Demonstrated a secure end-to-end solution applicable across diverse mHealth apps and devices, breaking down data silos.

Conclusions:

• ShareHealth provides a secure, usable, and practical solution for mHealth data sharing.
• The system enhances user privacy and control over sensitive health information.
• Enables secure data interoperability across different mHealth platforms.