Securing the electronic medical record by implementing Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) on the information system of a health service place

Abstract

Medical records are very crucial in health services all over the world. This is due to not only to record individual health conditions but also for getting the most appropriate medical services at a local health facility when in mobile conditions. By having a look at the medical records, the local health workers can know the medical history and give their best service in treating the patient. Conventional medical records commonly are written manually and are not flexible for the mobile environment. Therefore, the electronic medical record (EMR) has become mandatory to be implemented to cope with such problems. Another important thing that requires attention is the patient has the right to know the contents of the medical record, especially when having health services at a different hospital or other health services when at mobile conditions. Accessing the EMR from the mobile environment brings a crucial matter, namely, how to secure the contents of EMR and ensure that the access can only be given to the legitimate owner fit as well as other legitimated actors such as the related doctors and the EMR officials. Based on the arisen problem, the contribution of this research is to make the implementation of encryption algorithms that will be used on Secure Electronic Medical Record (SEMR) systems using secure and fast encryption techniques by using Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) on the information system of a health service place.