Encryption Solution Secures Processing of Patient Data

A novel cyber-security technique makes it possible to analyze data from a study while ensuring that a patient’s privacy is safeguarded.

Developed by researchers at Radboud University (Nijmegen, The Netherlands), the Polymorphic Encryption and Pseudonymisation (PEP) technique pseudonymises and encrypts data in such a way that access can be strictly regulated and monitored. The cryptographic basis for PEP is the ElGamal public key encryption, developed in the mid 1980’s. The innovation in PEP is the way the encryption is used, with re-randomization, re-keying, and re-shuffling of the data.

PEP is based on several principles:
• The managers of the data cannot access the data
• Participants can decide for each study if they want to allow their data to be used
• Researchers who use the data are given a unique key
• Participants have a different pseudonym for each researcher to prevent them from using another route to access data that they are not allowed to see.

One of the first applications of the PEP technique is in an upcoming study of 650 people with Parkinson’s disease (PD), who will be monitored for two years by means of, among other things, portable measuring equipment (wearables). Thanks to PEP, the research data collected in the Netherlands can be shared in pseudonymized form with top researchers throughout the world. A paper describing PEP was published on September 30, 2016, in the Cryptology ePrint Archive.

“In the context of international medical research, personal information is worth its weight in gold. So it’s important for the government to invest in an infrastructure that guarantees the protection of this information,” said professor of digital security Bart Jacobs, PhD. “The study of Parkinson’s should demonstrate the usefulness of PEP. With this showcase as an example, PEP could grow to become the international standard for storing and exchanging privacy-sensitive medical data.”

Radboud University and Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre (Nijmegen, the Netherlands) are investing €920,000 in the development of the PEP software. The Dutch province of Gelderland is contributing a further €750,000. The software will be made available as open source so that other parties may also use it.

Related Links:
Radboud University
Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre