Medical Data Encryption For Communication Over A Vulnerable System

• US 20080021834A1
• Filed: 07/17/2007
• Published: 01/24/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 07/19/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Stryker Corporation
• Original Assignee: Mdatalink LLC
• Inventors: Dala-Krishna, Praveen, Holla, Seema
• Granted Patent: US 7,974,924 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/51
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/602 Providing cryptographic facilities or services
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6245 Protecting personal data, e.g. for financial or medical purposes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2107 File encryption
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2149 Restricted operating environment
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/60 for patient-specific data, e.g. for electronic patient records
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 30/20 for handling medical images, e.g. DICOM, HL7 or PACS
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/67 for remote operation
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 80/00 ICT specially adapted for facilitating communication between medical practitioners or patients, e.g. for collaborative diagnosis, therapy or health monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0428 wherein the data content is protected, e.g. by encrypting or encapsulating the payload
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/08 for authentication of entities cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication H04L9/32
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/14 using a plurality of keys or algorithms
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 705/901 Digital rights management
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 705/904 Usage protection of distributed files
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 705/909 Usage charge determination

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.

Claims

1. A method for communicating a patient medical file including personal demographic information and medical data, 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;

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 destination device by way of a server which is capable of decrypting one of the encrypted demographic layer or the data layer but not both;

receiving the encrypted demographic layer and data layer at the destination device; and

decrypting the encrypted demographic layer and data layer in the destination device.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

decrypting the data layer at the server;

performing an operation on the decrypted data layer;

encrypting at least a portion of the processed data layer; and

sending the encrypted at least a portion of the processed data layer to the destination device.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the at least a portion of the processed data layer is encrypted with a third encryption key different from the first and second encryption keys.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein:

the operation performed on the decrypted data layer comprises selecting a portion of an image within the data layer, and

encrypting at least a portion of the processed data layer comprises encrypting the selected portion of the image.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein:

the operation performed on the decrypted data layer comprises formatting at least a portion of an image within the data layer to match display parameters of the handheld device, and

encrypting at least a portion of the processed data layer comprises encrypting the formatted image.

6. The method of claim 2, wherein:

the operation performed on the decrypted data layer comprises analyzing an EKG trace to recognize a diagnostically significant pattern,

selecting a diagnostically significant portion of the EKG trace, and

encrypting at least a portion of the processed data layer comprises encrypting the selected diagnostically significant portion of the EKG trace.

7. The method of claim 2, further comprising receiving a data selection criteria from the handheld device, wherein:

the operation performed on the decrypted data layer comprises using the received data selection criteria to select a portion of the decrypted data layer, and

encrypting at least a portion of the processed data layer comprises encrypting the select a portion of the decrypted data layer.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

transmitting user authentication data from the handheld device to the server;

comparing the received user authentication data to user authentication data stored on the server in order to authenticate the user; and

enabling transmission of the demographic layer and data layer to the handheld device if the user is authenticated.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the first and second encryption codes are time coded.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the first and second encryption codes are dynamically generated.

11. A method for communicating a patient medical file including personal demographic information and medical data, 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;

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 and the data layer but not both;

sending the encrypted demographic layer to a destination device;

receiving the encrypted demographic layer at the destination device; and

decrypting the encrypted demographic layer in the destination device and recovering a pointer to the data layer;

sending a request from the destination device to the server requesting transmission of the encrypted data layer;

sending the encrypted data layer from the server to the destination device in response to the request from destination device;

receiving the encrypted data layer at the destination device; and

de-encrypting the data layer in the destination device.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

decrypting the data layer at the server;

performing an operation on the decrypted data layer;

encrypting at least a portion of the processed data layer; and

sending the encrypted portion of the processed data layer to the designation device.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the at least a portion of the processed data layer is encrypted with a third encryption key different from the first and second encryption keys.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the plurality of layers further includes a prescription layer, further comprising:

encrypting the prescription layer using a fourth encryption key;

sending the encrypted demographic layer, data layer and prescription layer to a prescription server which is capable of decrypting the prescription layer but not either of the encrypted demographic layer and the data layer; and

performing a prescription operation on data within the prescription layer.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein the data layer comprises a data stream.

16. A method for communicating a patient medical file including personal demographic information and medical data, comprising:

separating the patient medical file into a plurality of data layers;

encrypting each one of the plurality of data layers using a respective one of a plurality of encryption keys to generate a plurality of encrypted data layers;

sending the plurality of encrypted data layers to a destination device by way of a first server which is capable of decrypting one but not all of the plurality of encrypted data layers;

receiving the plurality of encrypted data layers at the destination device; and

decrypting the plurality of encrypted data layers in the destination device.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising sending the plurality of encrypted data layers to a second server which is capable of decrypting one but not all of the plurality of encrypted data layers, wherein the second server is not capable of decrypting the same one of the plurality of encrypted data layers that the first server is capable of decrypting.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the plurality of layers further includes a diagnosis layer.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein the plurality of layers further includes a physician orders layer.