Secure Telemedicine: Biometrics for Remote and Continuous Patient Verification

The technological advancements in the field of remote sensing have resulted in substantial growth of the telemedicine industry. While health care practitioners may now monitor their patients’ well-being from a distance and deliver their services remotely, the lack of physical presence introduces sec...

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Main Authors: Foteini Agrafioti, Francis M. Bui, Dimitrios Hatzinakos
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2012-01-01
Series:Journal of Computer Networks and Communications
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2012/924791
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author Foteini Agrafioti
Francis M. Bui
Dimitrios Hatzinakos
author_facet Foteini Agrafioti
Francis M. Bui
Dimitrios Hatzinakos
author_sort Foteini Agrafioti
collection DOAJ
description The technological advancements in the field of remote sensing have resulted in substantial growth of the telemedicine industry. While health care practitioners may now monitor their patients’ well-being from a distance and deliver their services remotely, the lack of physical presence introduces security risks, primarily with regard to the identity of the involved parties. The sensing apparatus, that a patient may employ at home, collects and transmits vital signals to medical centres which respond with treatment decisions despite the lack of solid authentication of the transmitter’s identity. In essence, remote monitoring increases the risks of identity fraud in health care. This paper proposes a biometric identification solution suitable for continuous monitoring environments. The system uses the electrocardiogram (ECG) signal in order to extract unique characteristics which allow to discriminate users. In security, ECG falls under the category of medical biometrics, a relatively young but promising field of biometric security solutions. In this work, the authors investigate the idiosyncratic properties of home telemonitoring that may affect the ECG signal and compromise security. The effects of psychological changes on the ECG waveform are taken into consideration for the design of a robust biometric system that can identify users based on cardiac signals despite physical or emotional variations.
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spelling doaj-art-8be7e9d8e3224a0abc5f9fe1167f6d882025-08-20T03:37:40ZengWileyJournal of Computer Networks and Communications2090-71412090-715X2012-01-01201210.1155/2012/924791924791Secure Telemedicine: Biometrics for Remote and Continuous Patient VerificationFoteini Agrafioti0Francis M. Bui1Dimitrios Hatzinakos2The S. Rogers Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Toronto, 10 King’s College Road, Toronto, ON, M5S 3G4, CanadaThe Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Saskatchewan, 57 Campus Drive, Saskatoon, SK, S7N 5A9, CanadaThe S. Rogers Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Toronto, 10 King’s College Road, Toronto, ON, M5S 3G4, CanadaThe technological advancements in the field of remote sensing have resulted in substantial growth of the telemedicine industry. While health care practitioners may now monitor their patients’ well-being from a distance and deliver their services remotely, the lack of physical presence introduces security risks, primarily with regard to the identity of the involved parties. The sensing apparatus, that a patient may employ at home, collects and transmits vital signals to medical centres which respond with treatment decisions despite the lack of solid authentication of the transmitter’s identity. In essence, remote monitoring increases the risks of identity fraud in health care. This paper proposes a biometric identification solution suitable for continuous monitoring environments. The system uses the electrocardiogram (ECG) signal in order to extract unique characteristics which allow to discriminate users. In security, ECG falls under the category of medical biometrics, a relatively young but promising field of biometric security solutions. In this work, the authors investigate the idiosyncratic properties of home telemonitoring that may affect the ECG signal and compromise security. The effects of psychological changes on the ECG waveform are taken into consideration for the design of a robust biometric system that can identify users based on cardiac signals despite physical or emotional variations.http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2012/924791
spellingShingle Foteini Agrafioti
Francis M. Bui
Dimitrios Hatzinakos
Secure Telemedicine: Biometrics for Remote and Continuous Patient Verification
Journal of Computer Networks and Communications
title Secure Telemedicine: Biometrics for Remote and Continuous Patient Verification
title_full Secure Telemedicine: Biometrics for Remote and Continuous Patient Verification
title_fullStr Secure Telemedicine: Biometrics for Remote and Continuous Patient Verification
title_full_unstemmed Secure Telemedicine: Biometrics for Remote and Continuous Patient Verification
title_short Secure Telemedicine: Biometrics for Remote and Continuous Patient Verification
title_sort secure telemedicine biometrics for remote and continuous patient verification
url http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2012/924791
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