Comparison of patient-centric algorithms for health information security in health social networks and cloud environments

Electronic health enables patients share their own medical information and this sharing poses security risks. The purpose of this research is to review, and compare algorithms and methods for solving patient information security, from different aspects, including user revocation, and access control capabilities. The strengths and weaknesses of these algorithms are identified.

Information sources or data:

 This review conducted using online databases including PubMed, Web of Science, and Science Direct.

Selection methods for study:

 Keywords including health information systems, computer security, access to information, cloud computing and social networking was used to search. Articles published in 2009 to 2019 were selected. 29 articles related to solving the problem of user revocation and 7 articles related to solving the problem of access control were selected. Related articles were reviewed, then the access control and user revocation solutions were compared.

To protect the confidentiality of patient information, a cryptographic method is suggested before data sharing. This solution has the problem of revocation of the users. To solve this problem, various methods have been proposed. In this paper, these solutions are compared in different respects. The features of these methods have been compared in terms of instant revocation, key update, cloud free, encrypted text updates, and short revocation. Finally, methods for access control by the patients were also compared.

Security issues associated with health data make patients hesitant to post sensitive health information and share it with health providers. In this paper, algorithms and health information security methods were compared. Most of the solutions to revocation of users need re-encryption methods, also, access control solutions do not have the required flexibility. In the future, better methods should be presented.