%0 Journal Article
%T Secure Telemedicine: Biometrics for Remote and Continuous Patient Verification
%A Foteini Agrafioti
%A Francis M. Bui
%A Dimitrios Hatzinakos
%J Journal of Computer Networks and Communications
%D 2012
%I Hindawi Publishing Corporation
%R 10.1155/2012/924791
%X 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. 1. Introduction For a number of severe diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, or respiratory disorders, where hospitalization might not always be justified or needed, home care is traditionally preferred. Moreover, the visit of a medical practitioner to the patient¡¯s home is not necessarily an efficient solution either. This is because (i) the high health care costs for this service are undesirable; (ii) it may be infeasible for the personnel to reach highly rural areas; and (iii) monitoring is usually required on a continuous basis, rather than per visit. Home telemonitoring is now a reality, addressing the above problem very effectively, that is, it is not only cost-efficient but can also reach isolated communities and allow for 24£¿hr reporting on the patient¡¯s status. Nevertheless, the widespread utilization of telemonitoring increases the risk of identity fraud in health care. Due to the lack of physical presence at the time of collection of the medical information (e.g., vital signals), the identity of the user that transmits the respective information is uncertain. Typically, every monitoring device is assigned with a unique ID (e.g., a serial code)
%U http://www.hindawi.com/journals/jcnc/2012/924791/