CQL: a database in smart card for health care applications

The CQL-Card is the first smart card in the world to use Database Management Systems (DBMS) concepts. The CQL-Card is particularly suited to a portable file in health applications where the information is required by many different partners, such as health insurance organizations, emergency services, and General Practitioners. All the information required by these different partners can be shared with independent security mechanisms. Database engine functions are carried out by the card, which manages tables, views, and dictionaries. Medical Information is stored in tables and views are logical and dynamic subsets of tables. For owner-partners like MIS (Medical Information System), it is possible to grant privileges (select, insert, update, and delete on table or view) to other partners. Furthermore, dictionaries are structures that contain requested descriptions and which allow adaptation to computer environments. Health information held in the CQL-Card is accessed using CQL (Card Query Language), a high level database query language which is a subset of the standard SQL (Structured Query Language). With this language, CQL-Card can be easily integrated into Medical Information Systems.