Skip to main content

Health Cards called "Smart Cards"













Recently received a mail from one of my Friends Senthil asking more about smart cards and their implementation in Indian Health care Scenario. Here I am describing the use of smart cards with the technology that is usually deployed for the same.


Components of Smart card System

  • SMART CARDS

  • CARD READERS

  • CLIENT SOFTWARE

  • SERVERS WITH HARDWARE SECURITY

  • ADMINISTRATOR PORTAL WEBSITE

  • PATIENT PORTAL WEBSITE

  • CAREGIVER PORTAL WEBSITE

  • PDA & LAPTOP SOFTWARE .

  • VISUAL BASIC & .NET TOOLS

  • HL7 MESSAGING SERVER



What all these components do?



SMART CARDS - Securely hold patient information.



CARD READERS- Work with any PC and are branded with your logo.



CLIENT SOFTWARE -Upgrades the web browser on the PC so it works with smart cards and card readers



SERVERS WITH HARDWARE SECURITY- Host and protect private information.



ADMINISTRATOR PORTAL WEBSITE- A web application that lets administrators issue and manage cards.


PATIENT PORTAL WEBSITE- A web application where patients view and update their information.



CAREGIVER PORTAL WEBSITE- A web application that lets caregivers work with information on the smart cards.



PDA & LAPTOP SOFTWARE -For working with cards in mobile and off-line environments


.
VISUAL BASIC & .NET TOOLS -For customizing and extending the system.



HL7 MESSAGING SERVER -For integrating with other systems.





What are the possible benefits you are passing on to your customers in case you deploy a smart card facility?



  • Enhance patient loyalty and improve patient relationships.

  • Speed up registration with less paperwork.

  • Improve communication and information sharing between points of care.

  • Let patients view and update their medical information online.

  • Convert paper records to digital format.

  • Reduce erroneous and fraudulent registration information.

  • Track and log with all changes to the patient’s information.

  • Comply with rules about information portability and privacy.

  • Maintain patient confidentiality using the best information security technologies on the market.

Benefits to the patients:



  1. Patients can access their health care information online and are better informed.
  2. Gives patients control of their medical information.
  3. Patients have added assurance that their personal information is released on a “need-to-know” basis.
  4. Reduced waiting and duplicate paperwork during registration.
What a Smart Card ought to provide?



Provide secure, re-writeable storage with more space than a magnetic stripe


• Storage is protected with multiple access levels


• On-card software can be updated “post-issuance” with new features as often as necessary


• Optional magnetic stripe for backwards compatibility with existing systems


• Manufacturing services to support mass mailings, telephone user activation and bulk-personalization


• Military grade security and cryptography.



What all You should/can store in a smart card?



Demographic information


• Employer information


• Emergency contacts


• Medicines/Prescription information


• Allergies


• Medical History


• Primary & Referring physician information


• Insurers/Payors


• Guarantor information


• Advanced Directives


• Special requests/ pastoral care requests


• Organ donor information


• Caregiver notes


• Audit trail information tracking all changes


• Custom fields



What is the best technology to deploy them in the healthcare field?




• Multi-tier server architecture based on Microsoft .NET and SQL Server


• Server applications can customized with C#, VB.NET or ASP.NET)


• Server side scripts control interactions with the smart card so no specialized smart card programming is required


• The client software is an ActiveX control that uses the PC/SC standard to communicate with smart cards.


• Dedicated security hardware on the server protects private information.


What are the Security Features while passing on critical health Info?



The cards should store certificates and keys for PKI interoperability and include hardware based cryptography features.


• The card should store a complete audit trail.


• The storage on the cards should be tamper resistant.


• The cards should support multiple PINs for patients and caregivers, with lockout features that prevent PIN/password guessing.


• Smart cards should also provide multi-factor authentication when users log-in to the portal applications.


• In addition to the smart card security features, network traffic should be encrypted using SSL.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Innovations that caught my attention recently-#Healthtech

No. 1- Lyme bacteria use the same technique as White Blood Cells to navigate and move in blood vessels In an interesting case of convergent evolution Lyme bacteria use the same technique as White Blood Cells to navigate and move in blood vessels.To zip through the bloodstream and spread infection throughout the body, the bacteria that cause Lyme disease take a cue from the white blood cells trying to attack them. Both use specialized bonds to stick to the cells lining blood vessels and move along at their own pace, biologist Tara Moriarty and colleagues report September 6 in Cell Reports. “It’s really an amazing case of convergent evolution,” says Wendy Thomas, a biologist at the University of Washington in Seattle who wasn’t part of the study. “There’s little structural similarity between the molecules involved in these behaviors, and yet their behavior is the same.” No.2- Wearable Robot for people who lost their hand function This wearable robot helps disabled patients re...
Read more

PDAs in Healthcare -Passe or in Vogue

The PDA is a very small and portable, handheld computer, which has many more functions than a calculator, and the capacity to store information much like a Personal Computer (PC). Basic functionality available on most PDAs includes an address book, schedule, calendar, note pad, and e-mail. The PDA is convenient to use in clinical and field situations for quick data management, and the information can be synchronized with a PC . By means of a wireless network, information can be exchanged anytime from anywhere to and from a PDA, and the network will provide immediate access to all kinds of necessary clinical and administrative data . Health care professionals need access to information several times a day, and the PDA has the potential to provide this. For the PDA, there are numerous documents and medical software applications available, with a wide variation in quality. A large number of medical students take advantage of the PDA for educational purposes and patient care with great sa...
3 comments
Read more

Mhealth - Counterfeit Drugs India

WHO tells a story “By April 1999, reports of 771 cases of substandard drugs had been entered into the WHO database on counterfeit drugs, 77% of which were from developing countries. (Data analysis showed that in 60% of the 325 cases for which detailed data were available, an active ingredient was lacking.)” Bad medicines don't just threaten lives; they undermine the entire medical system . What is being done? There are distinct aspects to deciphering and de-complexifying the counterfeit pharmaceutical supply chain. One that is probably more in use today by almost all pharmaceutical companies worldwide is the product-based tracking methodology which incorporates the use of high technology systems to identify counterfeit products in the market. These technologies include tamper-evident packaging, holographics, bar codes and the more recent RFID. Indian Scenario People buy two tablets and never a strip. The unique number idea doesn’t work here. Chemists know that t...
Read more