Patent Issued for Homomorphic Encryption In A Healthcare Network Environment, System And Methods (USPTO 10,476,853)

2019 NOV 27 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- A patent by the inventors Soon-Shiong, Patrick (Culver City, CA); Kupwade-Patil, Harsh (Plano, TX); Seshadri, Ravi (Plano, TX); Witchey, Nicholas J. (Laguna Hills, CA), filed on December 20, 2018, was published online on November 25, 2019, according to news reporting originating from Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx correspondents.

Patent number 10,476,853 is assigned to Nanthealth Inc. (Culver City, California, United States).

The following quote was obtained by the news editors from the background information supplied by the inventors: “The background description includes information that may be useful in understanding the present disclosure. It is not an admission that any of the information provided herein is prior art or relevant to the disclosure, or that any publication specifically or implicitly referenced is prior art.

“The healthcare industry is going through a digital revolution stimulated in part by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Modernizing healthcare has led to a new age of digital health and wellness, in which healthcare data is collected from disparate sources (e.g., sensors connected to patients), and stored in disparate healthcare clouds (e.g., private, community and public clouds). Moreover, the volume of agglomerated healthcare data is large enough to qualify as ‘big data’. As healthcare clouds become a prominent feature in the healthcare industry, there is a greater need for securely sharing patient information across such disparate healthcare clouds. Furthermore, with Accountable Care Organizations (ACOS) (e.g., healthcare care providers such as doctors, hospitals and insurance providers) coming together to provide high-quality care in a cost-effective manner, demand for seamless connectivity across the healthcare clouds is greater than ever. A simplified patient-centric model is desirable where patients can change providers and still share their information in a timely manner, for better diagnosis and treatment, and eventually for improved global health.

“At present, healthcare providers who host sensitive patient data in private healthcare clouds across the globe are hesitant to share that information because of security and privacy issues. As healthcare providers move to community and public cloud based services, a need for secure interaction between disparate healthcare clouds increases. Furthermore, security regulations imposed by Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) place an onerous task on healthcare Information Technology (IT) infrastructure to be compliant with privacy and security regulations. In addition, with emerging Internet of Things (IoT) market and its integration in the big data cloud platform, there is increased concern about security and privacy with the healthcare cloud paradigm.”

In addition to the background information obtained for this patent, NewsRx journalists also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “Apparatus, systems and methods for homomorphic encryption in a healthcare network environment is provided and includes receiving data at a data custodian server in a plurality of formats from various data sources, encrypting the data according to a homomorphic encryption scheme, receiving a query at the data custodian server from a data consumer device concerning a portion of the encrypted data, initiating a secure homomorphic work session between the data custodian server and the data consumer device, generating a homomorphic work space associated with the homomorphic work session, compiling, by the data custodian server, a results set satisfying the query, loading the results set into the homomorphic work space, and building an application programming interface (API) compatible with the results set, the API facilitating encrypted analysis on the results set in the homomorphic work space.

“Various objects, features, aspects and advantages of the subject matter will become more apparent from the following detailed description of preferred embodiments, along with the accompanying drawing figures in which like numerals represent like components.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“What is claimed is:

“1. A method of supporting secure data analysis over a network, the method comprising: storing, via a data custodian server, digital data in a database, the digital data originating from a plurality of data sources; receiving, from a requesting device over the network, a query indicating requested digital data from among the digital data; initiating a secure work session between the data custodian server and the requesting device; generating a memory area associated with the secure work session, the memory area instantiated at least in part in at least one of the requesting device, the data custodian server, and an additional server; loading the requested digital data into the memory area wherein at least a portion of the digital data is accessible to the requesting device via an application programming interface; deriving a result vector from an operation performed by the requesting device on the requested digital data via the application programming interface; and returning the result vector to the requesting device.

“2. The method of claim 1, wherein the database comprises a cloud network.

“3. The method of claim 1, wherein the method is performed in a clinical operating system implemented in a cloud network.

“4. The method of claim 1, further comprising authenticating the requesting device based on a secure key exchange with the requesting device.

“5. The method of claim 1, wherein the result vector is returned to the requesting device in encrypted format.

“6. The method of claim 1, wherein the result vector is returned to the requesting device encrypted using a security key associated with the secure work session.

“7. The method of claim 6, wherein the requesting device decrypts the encrypted result vector using a security key associated with the secure work session.

“8. The method of claim 1, wherein the requested digital data is associated with a patient; and the result vector comprises a holistic health score for the patient.

“9. The method of claim 1, wherein the result vector comprises data associated with a predictive analytics model.

“10. A system for supporting secure data analysis, the system comprising: a data custodian server executing in a cloud network; and a requesting device remotely located from the data custodian server and communicatively coupled to the data custodian server, wherein the data custodian server stores digital data in a database, the digital data originating from a plurality of data sources; the data custodian server receives, from the requesting device, a query indicating requested digital data from among the digital data; the data custodian inserts the requested data into a memory area instantiated at least in part in at least one of the requesting device, the data custodian server, and an additional server, wherein at least a portion of the contents of the memory area is accessible to the requesting device via an application programming interface; the data custodian server derives a result vector from an operation performed by the requesting device on the requested digital data via the application programming interface; and the data custodian server returns the result vector to the requesting device.

“11. The system of claim 10, wherein the requested digital data is associated with a particular patient.

“12. The system of claim 10, wherein the result vector comprises data associated with a predictive analytics model.

“13. A non-transitory medium with encoding instructions executable by a processor to perform operations comprising: storing private digital data in a database, the private digital data originating from a plurality of data sources; receiving, from a requesting device, a query indicating requested digital data from among the private digital data; inserting the requested digital data into a memory area instantiated at least in part in at least one of the requesting device, the data custodian server, and an additional server, wherein at least a portion of the contents of the memory area is accessible to the requesting device via an application programming interface; deriving result vector from an operation performed by the requesting device on the requested digital data via the application programming interface; and returning the result vector to the requesting device.

“14. The medium of claim 13, wherein the database comprises a cloud network.

“15. The medium of claim 13, wherein the instructions are executable by the processor to perform operations further comprising authenticating the requesting device based on a secure key exchange with the requesting device.

“16. The medium of claim 13, wherein the requested digital data is associated with a patient; and the result vector comprises a holistic health score for the patient.

“17. The medium of claim 13, wherein the result vector comprises data associated with a predictive analytics model.

“18. The medium of claim 13, wherein the operation is performed on the requested digital data during a secure session with the requesting device.

“19. The method of claim 18, wherein the result vector is returned to the requesting device encrypted using a security key associated with the secure session.”

URL and more information on this patent, see: Soon-Shiong, Patrick; Kupwade-Patil, Harsh; Seshadri, Ravi; Witchey, Nicholas J. Homomorphic Encryption In A Healthcare Network Environment, System And Methods. U.S. Patent Number 10,476,853, filed December 20, 2018, and published online on November 25, 2019. Patent URL: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=10,476,853.PN.&OS=PN/10,476,853RS=PN/10,476,853

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