Healthcare Privacy

Abstract

As healthcare shifts towards the digital realm and healthcare delivery steers to patient-centric solutions, new privacy risks emerge. Such risks are acknowledged, but understanding and addressing them with privacy-enhanced technologies is practically challenging. This chapter describes privacy concerns and risks that emerge with the digitization of healthcare services, the availability of Internet-of-care-things, and the usage of online services for medical data. To ensure patients’ privacy, collaborative efforts from stakeholders are necessary. Patients, practitioners, and family members play an important role, along with medical organizations, including hospitals, insurance companies, and clinics. Privacy-preserving mechanisms go beyond the protection of patients’ data to the infrastructure of medical devices, networks, and systems. The data life cycle, from collection to disposal, must be considered when implementing privacy protections. Principles, policies, and regulations addressing privacy are limited and costly to implement, failing to cover novel technologies that collect and transmit medical data. In the USA, HIPAA is the de facto policy standard. Nevertheless, HIPAA disregards data collected by wearable sensors, fitness trackers, and smartwatches. It does not consider social media networks, mobile applications, and discussion forums where users share medical information. Lastly, genetic data available through online profiles rises privacy issues that are neither known nor regulated.

"Exploring Radio Frequency Techniques for Bone Fracture Detection: A Comprehensive Review of Low Frequency and Microwave Approaches"

“…These may include secure data transmission protocols, encrypted data storage, and training of healthcare providers on data protection policies and practices. Furthermore, ensuring compliance with privacy regulations will be key to protecting patient data and maintaining trust [82]. Addressing these challenges will not be easy and will require a concerted effort from all stakeholders involved, including researchers, healthcare providers, technology developers, and regulatory bodies.…”

Future pHealth Ecosystem-Holistic View on Privacy and Trust

“…According to Friedewald, the right to privacy requires a forward-looking privacy framework that positively outlines the parameters of privacy in order to prevent intrusions [22]. A meaningful challenge is that, while technical solutions provide some protection against data misuse, the existence of such protection does not necessarily mean that users will disclose more information [47].…”

“…Instead, a holistic, systemic view is needed. Furthermore, for privacy and trust, a user-centric approach should be used [47].…”

For a CPS-IoT Enabled Healthcare Ecosystem Consider Cognitive Cybersecurity

“…With a focus on the urgent need for effective security solutions, this research will contribute to a better understanding of cognitive cybersecurity for CPS-IoT in the context of the healthcare ecosystem. Through collaborative efforts among cybersecurity experts, healthcare practitioners, and researchers, proactive measures are expected to be achieved in protecting critical infrastructure and ensuring the security and privacy of patients in this evolving era [7].…”