Secure Collaborative Platform for Health Care Research in an Open Environment: Perspective on Accountability in...

Area of Science:

• Health Informatics
• Cybersecurity
• Data Science

Background:

• Increasing use of IT in healthcare generates vast amounts of eHealth data.
• Researchers desire to utilize eHealth data for advancements, but privacy and security concerns are significant barriers.
• Existing healthcare research platforms often fall short in addressing data security and patient privacy concerns.

Purpose of the Study:

• To implement a secure health care big data platform (HBDP) designed to overcome the limitations of existing research platforms.
• To ensure the utility of eHealth data while prioritizing its security and privacy.
• To provide a robust environment for health care research utilizing sensitive eHealth data.

Main Methods:

• Identified security threats in healthcare and defined corresponding security requirements.
• Proposed the HBDP, incorporating attribute-based encryption for fine-grained access control and a private blockchain for monitoring and accountability.
• Implemented the HBDP and conducted case studies for threat detection and performance evaluation.

Main Results:

• The HBDP successfully detected illegal users through its security agent.
• Empirical evaluation demonstrated efficient data encryption and decryption times, with column-level encryption taking approximately 1 minute.
• Blockchain performance showed average latencies of 18 seconds (read) and 4 seconds (write), with high transaction throughputs.

Conclusions:

• The HBDP provides a secure environment for eHealth data research through attribute-based encryption and blockchain technology.
• It ensures fine-grained access control, secure data storage, non-repudiation, and accountability.
• The implemented platform offers a viable solution for leveraging eHealth data while maintaining stringent security and privacy standards.