Research
Seed Grant Profile
90
2008-2009 Program
Accessibility and Security for Community Health Records
The idea of providing access by medical professionals to a repository containing basic electronic health records for a large number of patients has been widely discussed. The benefits of such a community health record are numerous, e.g. the ability to look up basic health information on patients receiving emergency care. Currently prescribed medications and known allergies are some of the most commonly cited types of basic information that would be extremely valuable in administering treatment in emergency situations. This research will address several issues that are critical to the realization of a safe and practical community health record. These include how to ensure that all valid personnel, and only those personnel, can obtain access to the community health record, and how to verify that the data in the record are legitimate and have not been tampered with. The project will produce a working prototype of a community health record repository and demonstrate it in the context of emergency responder access to patient information.
Investigators: Doug Blough (GT, Electrical and Computer Engineering)