Surrogate Authentication with Single-Use Tokens for PHI Sharing
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Solution Overview
Problem
The healthcare industry faces challenges in managing personal health information (PHI) and non-clinical patient data securely and effectively, with patients having limited control over their data despite growing demands for enhanced autonomy.
Innovation Solution
A system for surrogate authentication and data sharing that enables authorized proxies to manage PHI and non-clinical data, using Single Sign-On (SSO) and a blockchain-agnostic encrypted datastore with session and single-use tokens for secure access and audit trails.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If traditional authentication systems are used for healthcare data access, then system simplicity is maintained, but patient autonomy and control over personal health information are limited
Solution Approach 1:
The authentication system is segmented into multiple components: traditional authentication for the user, surrogate authentication for authorized proxies, and granular permission management. This allows different levels of access control while maintaining overall system manageability, directly enabling patient autonomy through surrogate representation.
Solution Approach 2:
A surrogate authentication mechanism is introduced as an intermediary between the patient and the healthcare data system. The surrogate acts as a mediator who can access and manage patient data on behalf of the patient, thereby extending patient autonomy to situations where the patient cannot directly access or manage their own data.
2Productivity
If centralized data storage is used for healthcare records, then data accessibility is improved, but data security and patient control are compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements local quality by providing granular permission management where different surrogates can be granted different levels of access to different types of health data. This allows data to be stored centrally for accessibility while maintaining security through localized, fine-grained access controls tailored to specific surrogate-user relationships.
3Adaptability or versatility
If granular permission management is implemented for PHI, then patient control is enhanced, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary action by establishing surrogate relationships and permission structures in advance, before actual data access is needed. Patients can pre-designate surrogates and set permission levels, which then automatically apply when data access is required, reducing the complexity of real-time permission management while maintaining granular control.
Data Source
AI summary
A system for adding a surrogate as a digital proxy to data associated with a user and sharing the data by the surrogate, comprises an authentication server and an encrypted datastore. The authentication server is accessed by the surrogate using a single-use temporary link which was generated at the request of a user. The authentication server identifies the surrogate and confirms willingness of the surrogate to act as a digital proxy for the user. In response to the surrogate accessing the authentication server, being authenticated by the authentication server, and providing a valid data claim from a third-party application the authentication server generates a single-use datastore token which is used to access user data associated with the data claim and stored in an encrypted fashion within the encrypted datastore. After decryption, the decrypted user data is forwarded by the encrypted datastore to a third-party application.