Controlling access to clinical data analyzed by remote computing resources

#The present application relates to analyzing clinical data by remote computing resources. It finds particular application in conjunction with systems and methods for controlling healthcare provider access to clinical data analyzed by remote computing resources and will be described with particular reference thereto. However, it is to be understood that it also finds application in other usage scenarios and is not necessarily limited to the aforementioned application.

#It is essential to ensure that information being transmitted by and between the clinical resources is securely protected. Because patient medical information is confidential and protected by Federal and State laws and regulations, such as HIPAA in the US, it is important that the communicated clinical data is protected during its transmission and storage. The security of communications between clinical resources is typically enabled by controlling access to the clinical data. Specifically, the communication clinical data is encrypted to protect the content of transmitted messages so that intruders cannot read or modify the clinical data. With the growth of remote computing resources, most modern healthcare communication architectures tend to be open, interconnected environments. Sensitive clinical data no longer reside on mainframes physically isolated within a healthcare provider, where physical security measures can be taken to defend the data and the system. Clinical data is rather kept in an environment where data is outsourced to or processed on remote computing resource in order to allow de-centralized access for family doctors, medical specialists and even non-medical care providers. In order to allow sharing of clinical data among different healthcare providers or with external parties, it is advantageous to provide end-to-end security techniques such that trusted parties are allowed access to the clinical data on the network, and that the owner of the data has the ability to limit what data is accessible to others.

#The present invention provides a new and improved apparatus and method which overcomes the above-referenced problems and others.

#The invention may take form in various components and arrangements of components, and in various steps and arrangements of steps. The drawings are only for purposes of illustrating the preferred embodiments and are not to be construed as limiting the invention.

#FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an IT infrastructure in accordance with the present application.

#FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a system for issuing public and private keys to healthcare providers and patients in accordance with the present application.

#With reference to FIG. 1, a block diagram illustrates one embodiment of an information technology (IT) infrastructure 10 of a system for controlling access to clinical data analyzed by a remote computing resource. The IT infrastructure 10 suitably includes one or more healthcare systems and providers 12, a remote computing resource 14, and the like, interconnected via a communications network 16. It is contemplated that the communications network 16 includes one or more of the Intranet, a local area network, a wide area network, a wireless network, a wired network, a cellular network, a data bus, a personal area network, and the like. The healthcare provider 12 collects clinical data related to a patient 18 cared for by the healthcare system or medical institution which is analyzed by the remote computing resource 14, which in one embodiment is located in a cloud infrastructure. In other embodiments the system may be located at a single location. In yet another embodiment may exist in a secure environment, but data transmission is over public media or shared infrastructure.

#As used herein, “cloud” may refer to a collection of resources (e.g., hardware, data and/or software) provided and maintained by an off-site or off-premise party (e.g., third party), wherein the collection of data and resources can be accessed by an identified user via a network. The resources can include data storage services, data processing services (e.g., applications), and many other services that are conventionally associated with and reside within personal computers, local or “on-premise” servers, having at least one processing device such as a microprocessor, graphics processor among other processing devices and associated components. In general, cloud computing may be employed to perform services in a dissociative way, i.e., the client may not know where the service is performed as long as the service is performed with the expected quality of service.

#As used herein, “clinical data” may refer to data collected from a patient or from a medical institution in any number of conventional ways. For example, clinical data may be collected in the field by a healthcare provider such as a physician or clinician. Alternatively, a patient may be admitted to a healthcare provider such as a hospital or an emergency clinic and related clinical data may be collected by, for example, admissions or administration at the healthcare provider. Clinical data may be collected by other medical devices, such as, patient monitors including various subsystems for each vital sign such as SpO2, temperature, blood pressure, heart rate, etc., various imaging equipment, pacemaker monitors and interrogation devices, laboratory equipment, and other clinical data collection systems. Clinical data may also be collected by a patient's home monitoring systems, which may report physical, chemical, electrical or other patient's clinical parameters. Data collection used herein may be episodic, based on a predefined event or stochastic process, periodic, such as every 4 hours, or continuous. Data collection may be real time, near real-time or previously acquired and later uploaded.