Paper Title
Design of Secured Personal Data Servers of Patient Medical Records in Nigeria
Abstract
This research is based on a designed Secured Personal Data Servers of Patient Medical Records in Nigeria. It is built upon the emergence of portable data server (PDS) with well secured devices, combining the security of smart cards with embedded software devices and storage capacity of NAND Flash Chips. This is a novel model that is in compliance with healthcare standards of data and service user-friendliness. To access a resource in Nigeria, users must meet the regulatory conditions of the policy class which is in conformity with organizational standards as stipulated by the Federal Ministry of Health in Nigeria, the organization in the country with primary responsibility for healthcare policies. The system was designed to be flexible and adaptive in order to allow users pass on their rights of access to other users. Otherwise, permission given for right of access can be withdrawn based on the restrictions stipulated in the program.
The problem of inadequate healthcare facilities in producing sustainable development in Nigeria, breaches of security, delivery, confidentiality, ethical risk issues and privacy risks incurred by centralization due to privacy violations that arise from negligence, abusive use, internal and external attacks has made it almost impossible to run an efficient and effective healthcare services in Nigeria. PDS with current server-based approach, cryptography-based and server-side secured hardware can minimize these problems. The objectives of the research are: (a) to provide the main functionalities of a database engine that will be interoperable with existing data sources and facilitate secured data sharing protocols by establishing control of how users personal data are shared with others; and (b) create a way of harmonising patient’s data from other hospitals in the country as well as beyond while facilitating interoperability of clinical systems. This study adopts authentication and authorization method at inter- / intra-organizational levels for the security and delivery of patients’ clinical data. It will also promote a stratified database with indexing and hashing techniques that can change strata without incurring a dramatic number of alterations where precomputed, relational context and queries are executed in a pure pipeline fashion. The system will cut down substantially the cost of travelling abroad for medical consultations, which runs into millions of dollars in U.S. currency or billions in Naira, Nigerian currency, especially given the relative poverty of Nigeria, like many other developing countries. The PDS devices are expected to assist doctors and clinicians in reviewing patients’ medical history and status prior to a consult or in reaching a diagnosis. It is also expected to provide support regarding timely referrals to and location of healthcare facilities for parallel care as needed.
Keywords - Accessibility, Authentication, Authorization, Confidentiality, Electronic Records, Interoperability