Security Architecture for Mobile E-Health Applications in Medication Control

Fabio Goncalves, Maria Joao Nicolau, Joaquim Macedo, Alexandre Santos

Universidade do Minho
Centro Algoritmi
Escola de Engenharia
4710-057 Braga, Portugal

Tel.: +351 253 604430
Fax.: +351 253 604471
E-mail: a44031 (at) alunos.uminho.pt, joao (at) dsi.uminho.pt, macedo (at) di.uminho.pt, alex (at) di.uminho.pt


Abstract

The use of Radio Frequency Identification technology (RFID) in medical context enables not only drug identification, but also a rapid and precise identification of patients, physicians, nurses or any other health caregiver. The combination of RFID tag identification with structured and secured Internet of Things (IoT) solutions enables ubiquitous and easy access to medical related records, while providing control and security to all interactions.

This paper defines a basic security architecture, easily deployable on mobile platforms, which would allow to establish and manage a medication prescription service in mobility context making use of electronic Personal Health Records. This security architecture is aimed to be used with a mobile e-health application (m-health) through a simple and intuitive interface, supported by RFID technology. This architecture, able to support secured and authenticated interactions, will enable an easy deployment of m-health applications. The special case of drug administration and ubiquitous medication control system, along with the corresponding Internet of Things context, is presented. The security architecture and its protocols, along with a general Ambient Assisted Living secure service for medication control, is then analyzed in the context of the Internet of Things.


21th International Conference on Software, Telecommunications and Computer Networks (SoftCOM 2013), Split, Croatia, Sep 18-20, 2013