Embedding a hiding function in a portable electronic health record for privacy preservation.

The objective of this study was to develop a method to hide information in a portable electronic health record (PEHR). In compliance with HIPAA guidelines, a hiding function for personal identifiers in a PEHR was implemented by recognizing and hiding techniques. The method emphasizes the feasibility of embedding a hiding function in a PEHR. The hiding function could be executed to hide identifiers in offline mode. The present study showed that embedding the hiding function in a PEHR is a practical way not only satisfies data confidentiability needs, but also meets patient's personal privacy requirements. The effects of executing the hiding function would be the same as through de-identification or anonymization process.

Privacy preservation and information security protection for patients' portable electronic health records.

As patients face the possibility of copying and keeping their electronic health records (EHRs) through portable storage media, they will encounter new risks to the protection of their private information. In this study, we propose a method to preserve the privacy and security of patients' portable medical records in portable storage media to avoid any inappropriate or unintentional disclosure. Following HIPAA guidelines, the method is designed to protect, recover and verify patient's identifiers in portable EHRs. The results of this study show that our methods are effective in ensuring both information security and privacy preservation for patients through portable storage medium.