Towards a Dependable Access Framework for E-Health

Medical information is highly considered sensitive and should therefore be protected from any form of vulnerabilities. In the olden days, medical data were preserved and stored by using traditional methods such as filing system, papers and books. This approach is known with many flaws and weaknesses. The exigency for large amount storage areas and complexities in the retrieval of records are few among the numerous challenges. Against the backdrops of various noted problems with traditional approach, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has brought several initiatives aim at finding solutions. Introduction of electronic health (e-Health) is one of the major ideas aims at bringing better alternatives to healthcare sector. Electronic health is considered the best solution to the management of health information across the globe. With this approach, information is neat and tidy, and can be easily stored and retrieved within a very short period of time. Despite numerous benefits noted with this initiative, e-Health is still characterised with various challenges. Few of those challenges are security, scalability and interoperability of the e-Health framework. This research aims at resolving the security challenge in e-Health. In achieving this, we propose a secrecy-protecting data system that will guarantee absolute control of information disclosure to a third party. The architectural model has three phases: the patient service phase, digital watermarking phase and data service phase. Each of the phases has unique functions which it performs within the system. In this context, patient will be able to exercise, express and enforce exclusive obligations and privileges concerning disclosure of his health information to a third party. Also, any healthcare provider of e-Health will not be privileged to access health data as well as information about any patient who registered under his organization.