Attribute Based Encryption for Secure Access to Cloud Based EHR Systems

Medical organizations find it challenging to adopt cloud-based electronic medical records services, due to the risk of data breaches and the resulting compromise of patient data. Existing authorization models follow a patient centric approach for EHR management where the responsibility of authorizing data access is handled at the patients’ end. This however creates a significant overhead for the patient who has to authorize every access of their health record. This is not practical given the multiple personnel involved in providing care and that at times the patient may not be in a state to provide this authorization. Hence there is a need of developing a proper authorization delegation mechanism for safe, secure and easy cloud-based EHR management. We have developed a novel, centralized, attribute based authorization mechanism that uses Attribute Based Encryption (ABE) and allows for delegated secure access of patient records. This mechanism transfers the service management overhead from the patient to the medical organization and allows easy delegation of cloud-based EHR’s access authority to the medical providers. In this paper, we describe this novel ABE approach as well as the prototype system that we have created to illustrate it.

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Darius McKoy is a Biological Sciences (B.S.) major and Psychology (Minor) who will graduate in Spring, 2020.

List any Scholars/Honors programs you are a part of: Meyerhoff Scholar, HHMI Scholar, President's List, Dean's List, LSAMP Participant

Title of your research project: The Role of Protein Synthesis in Cellular Arrest and Organismal Survival Under Anoxia

Describe your project: The phenomenon is that zebrafish can survive up to 50 hours by halting their development to converse energy. In the lab, we are analyzing the signaling pathways that allow this arrest to occur.

Who is your mentor(s) for your project? Dr. Rachel Brewster, Biological Sciences. I became interested in Dr. Brewster because of recommendations from past students. I chose her because from meeting with her and talking to the graduate students, it was clear that she would push me to become the best researcher that I could be.

How did you become interested in this project? I became interested in the project because I realized that it can have some real medical applications and can impact human health which aligns with my career goals. 

What has been the hardest part about your research/what was the most unexpected thing about being a researcher? The hardest part has been managing time in lab with classes and other commitments but keeping track of my time can greatly benefited me. I had to learn that patience was key to survival in a research lab.

What has been the most rewarding part? Finally getting things to work after troubleshooting for a long time and gaining approval from graduate students.

How will you disseminate your research? URCAD Presentation and a future publication 

What is your advice to other students about getting involved in research? At UMBC, the opportunities are endless. A simple email asking to meet with a faculty member to discuss their research can do the trick.

What are your career goals? Obtain a MD/PhD in neurobiology and become a successful neuroscientist and anesthesiologist, then start a medical company.

Want to be featured as a Researcher of the Week?  Email: aprilh@uumbc.edu 

There is a severe lack of outlets on campus considering the amount of students who need them. Students frequently study and do homework using their laptops, which have a limited amount of battery life.

UMBC is working towards growing the campus through constructing new buildings. There should also be a focus on updating old ones, namely making certain that the buildings have sufficient working outlets. There are about 11,000 students enrolled at UMBC and many need an extra charge, not only during study time but also during classes.

There are many classes where the use of computers is necessary, but most classrooms do not have the capabilities to cater to every student. Even in classrooms with tabletop outlets there are not always enough outlets on the actual walls for the tables to be of any use.

Activities that require charger ports are integral to education today. Almost all students need to be able to charge their electronics and UMBC has not accounted for that as of yet.

A large amount of people enrolled at UMBC are majoring in something that involves computer science, which necessitates the use of a computer. Additionally, many other majors require at least a bit of time on an electronic device. Battery life is not infinite, and if there is a project due in a few hours but only enough battery life left for a few more minutes, that could be detrimental to a student’s grade.

Erika Echols, a senior sociology major, believes that, “more outlets could be added in classrooms and in lecture halls because some peoples’ battery life for laptops are not as long as others, and this could definitely impede one from learning and taking notes.” This is more noticeable during days where professors require the class to bring in their computers for the day and everyone clamors to get one of the limited outlets.

In some buildings, many of the outlets do not even work. As previously mentioned, the tables with tabletop outlets are limited. Echols comments on this, saying,”there is the library, but not every part of the library has outlets, especially the floors where it is supposed to be silent.”

Tamara Carr, a senior English major, shares a similar sentiment. “I spend the majority of my time in the performing arts building and there are not nearly enough outlets in the common spaces,” Carr says, adding, “I don’t think there are enough outlets in the classrooms, as I have often times not been able to charge my devices because other students were using the one outlet per wall of the classroom.”

Overall, UMBC needs to consider necessary updates to every building in order to accommodate every student. In the new technological age nearly everyone uses their laptop or phone in order to excel in school. Without the proper accommodations the use of technology is very difficult at UMBC.