Medical data encryption for communication over a vulnerable system
First Claim
1. A method for communicating a patient medical file of a patient, said medical file including personal demographic information, medical data and a diagnostic image, the method comprising:
- separating the patient medical file into a plurality of layers including a demographic layer comprising the demographic information and a data layer comprising the medical data and the diagnostic image;
selecting a portion of the data layer including at least a portion of the diagnostic image on a console;
encrypting the demographic layer using a first encryption key;
encrypting the data layer using a second encryption key, wherein the second encryption key is different from the first encryption key;
sending the encrypted demographic layer and data layer to a server which is capable of decrypting one of the encrypted demographic layer or the data layer but not both;
decrypting the data layer at the server;
performing an operation on the decrypted data layer comprising selecting a second portion of the diagnostic image;
re-encrypting at least a portion of the processed data layer including the selected second portion of the image; and
transmitting the encrypted demographic layer and the re-encrypted data layer to a mobile device.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A method for securing patient medical information for communication over a potentially vulnerable system includes separating patient'"'"'s medical file into a demographics layer and a data layer, separately encrypting the demographic layer and data layer using different encryption keys, and providing servers in a communication and processing system with a decryption key for the layer processed by such server. Medical file data may be separated into more than two layers. Users accessing the system are authenticated using standard techniques. By separately encrypting different parts of a patient medical record, processing and communication of patient medical files by intermediary servers is enabled without risking disclosure of sensitive patient information if such servers are compromised.
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Citations
9 Claims
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1. A method for communicating a patient medical file of a patient, said medical file including personal demographic information, medical data and a diagnostic image, the method comprising:
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separating the patient medical file into a plurality of layers including a demographic layer comprising the demographic information and a data layer comprising the medical data and the diagnostic image; selecting a portion of the data layer including at least a portion of the diagnostic image on a console; encrypting the demographic layer using a first encryption key; encrypting the data layer using a second encryption key, wherein the second encryption key is different from the first encryption key; sending the encrypted demographic layer and data layer to a server which is capable of decrypting one of the encrypted demographic layer or the data layer but not both; decrypting the data layer at the server; performing an operation on the decrypted data layer comprising selecting a second portion of the diagnostic image; re-encrypting at least a portion of the processed data layer including the selected second portion of the image; and transmitting the encrypted demographic layer and the re-encrypted data layer to a mobile device. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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Specification