Smart Card use for eHealth
Unlike easily-forgeable paper documents, smart cards are in practice impossible to forge or unlawfully manipulate. They benefit from inherent high levels of security used in other applications, such as banking, telecoms and identity. The same security mechanisms as used in banking sector, like PIN codes and biometry, limit the unlawful use of lost or stolen cards to gain access to healthcare.
Dematerialization of the medical prescription from paper to an electronic format helps organisations reduce costs and increase efficiency.
Smart cards solutions enable the preauthorization of health transactions by storing information regarding the validity of the patient’s rights.
In addition to the chip and the security features of the operating system, the card body itself becomes a secure tool when the user’s picture is added along with extra security features, such as guilloches, rainbows and hidden words, all of which have been previously developed for banknotes and ID applications and can be easily re-employed in eHealthcare systems.
Finally, the smart card enables the ultimate privacy protection by filtering access to sensitive data – only authorized people can read it, such as the smart card holder and their authorized doctor.
As such, a complete digital security approach based on a wide range of flexible, personalized smart cards solutions could be delivered for eHealthcare. A variety of solutions for patients and professionals are available, including:
- eHealthcare insurance smart cards and/or European Healthcare
- Insurance Cards, for patients
- Secure web access to medical services for patients
- eHealth professional smart cards for health workers
- Secure access control, both physical to buildings and offices,and logical to computers for professionals
- Authentication solutions for connection to medical applications
- Set readers adapted to every need, such as PC-connected readers, standalone units or tokens
The following eHealth solutions are also available for issuance organizations like governments and health insurance companies:
- Enrolment of patient data
- Personalization of cards including data preparation
- Packaging and direct mailing according to specific customer requirements
- Healthcare portal authentication gateways
Smart card technology is the trusted personal eID device for all European citizens. It is independent of the infrastructure and already shows a high level of adoption in other domains such as mobile telephony, pay-TV and banking applications. A trusted personal device in a smart card presents undeniable advantages in terms of interoperability, acceptability, mobility and security. It can be the legal, most cost-efficient and most secure proof of a citizens’ digital identity while protecting their privacy. It is clearly the best combination of an ID document, a personal portable tool and a secure access to eHealthcare services in one.