Heartbeat as Encryption Key for Electronic Records

You can never be too secure, but the researchers at the Binghamton University have gone a step further by developing a new way to protect personal electronic health records – using heart’s electrical pattern as an encryption key.

The researchers explain that the traditional encryption solutions are complex and expensive, making them impractical for telemedicine and mobile healthcare. The team wanted to find a simple and cost-effective solution that would protect sensitive health data, so they decided to use unique electrocardiograph (ECG) as the key to lock and unlock files.

ECG is essentially a process of measuring the electrical activity of the heart which is done by a biosensor attached to the skin. Since each person has a different heartbeat, this could be used as a unique and secure key. “While ECG signals are collected for clinical diagnosis and transmitted through networks to electronic health records, we strategically reused the ECG signals for the data encryption. Through this strategy, the security and privacy can be enhanced while minimum cost will be added,” explained Zhanpeng Jin, one of the researchers.

Essentially, each patient has their own password which is his/her own heartbeat. This ingenious solution will be very helpful for the next-gen personalized healthcare.

Reference:

Binghamton University via ScienceDaily (https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/01/170118125240.htm)