| There is trend in health care to move towards personalized treatment that stretches out from the hospital to the patient's home, as exemplified by ambient assisted living. Additionally, there is a growing emphasis on prevention by means of healthy lifestyles. As a result healthcare becomes more patient oriented, which will lead to increasing influence and responsibility of the patient. In such a world, patient data is increasingly spread across many care providers, such as the general practitioner (doctor), dentist, consultant (specialist), physiotherapist, hospital, pharmacy and, of course, the patient. Care providers must be able to access relevant information that is created and maintained by colleagues (such as medication records). Patients expect the same level of care whether they are at home, travelling or abroad. To a certain extent, the law gives patients control over who can access patient data so as to safeguard the privacy of the patient. Furthermore, a number of services are emerging that are based on personal health record maintained and controlled by patients themselves. The security of patient data is essential to ensure that doctors obtain the correct information at the right time. The retention period for patient data is long (up to 100 years) and this poses a significant challenge for the technical infrastructure that supports the healthcare system. |
| The main challenge in the healthcare domain is how to give authorised health professionals immediate and full access to all relevant patient data, subject to informed consent being given by the patient. SPCHMD, say Secure Patient-Centric Management of Health Data, is a joint project between the Centre for Telematics and Information Technology (CTIT) and Philips Research aiming to investigate security techniques for secure patient's health data. CTIT is a multidisciplinary research institute of the University of Twente, Enschede, the Netherlands. CTIT coordinates the research activities in all the areas relevant to the development, the introduction and the usage of information technology systems. Philips Research is one of the world's major private research organizations, with laboratories in three regions (Europe, East Asia, North America) and staffed by around 1,800 people. Philips Research creates innovations in the areas of Healthcare, Lifestyle and Technology. |