Researchers Submit Patent Application, “Homomorphic Encryption In A Healthcare Network Environment, System And Methods”, for Approval (USPTO 20200358746)

2020 NOV 30 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- From Washington, D.C., NewsRx journalists report that a patent application 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 July 27, 2020, was made available online on November 12, 2020.

The patent’s assignee is Nanthealth Inc. (Culver City, California, United States).

News editors obtained the following quote 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.”

As a supplement to the background information on this patent application, NewsRx correspondents also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent application: “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:

“1-20. (canceled)

“21. A computer-implemented method of providing access to an encrypted result set, the method comprising: creating a homomorphic encryption (HE) context among at least two computing devices; instantiating, at least in part based on the HE context, a homomorphic work space (HWS) in a non-transitory, computer readable first memory of a first computing device of the at least two computing devices; loading encrypted data into the first memory, wherein the encrypted data is encrypted according to the HE context and wherein the first computing device lacks access to an unencrypted version of the encrypted data; generating an encrypted result set in the first memory by executing at least one homomorphic operation on at least a portion of the encrypted data according to instructions from a second computing device of the at least two computing devices; serializing at least the encrypted result set as a serialized object; transmitting, over a network, the serialized object including at least the encrypted result set to the second computing device.

“22. The method of claim 21, further comprising establishing a secure communication link over the network between at least the first and the second computing device.

“23. The method of claim 21, wherein the encrypted result set comprises an encrypted result vector.

“24. The method of claim 23, wherein the encrypted result vector represents one or more attribute-value pairs responsive to a set of operations including the at least one homomorphic operation.

“25. The method of claim 21, wherein the serialized object comprises a binary object.

“26. The method of claim 21, wherein the serialized object comprises a JSON object.

“27. The method of claim 21, wherein the HWS comprises a learning with errors (LWE) environment.

“28. The method of claim 21, wherein the HWS comprises a lattice cryptographic environment.

“29. The method of claim 21, wherein the HWS comprises a fully homomorphic encryption (FHE) environment.

“30. The method of claim 21, wherein the at least one homomorphic operation comprises a polynomial function.

“31. The method of claim 21, wherein the first computing device is part of a homomorphic cloud-based service.

“32. The method of claim 31, wherein the homomorphic cloud-based service comprises a community cloud service.

“33. The method of claim 21, further comprising terminating the HWS by sending a close message to the first computing device from the second computing device.

“34. The method of claim 21, wherein the HWS is distributed among the at least two computing devices.

“35. The method of claim 21, wherein the HE context is associated with at least one corresponding HWS key.

“36. The method of claim 21, wherein the HWS comprises at least one secure container.

“37. The method of claim 21, further comprising restricting access to the at least one homomorphic operation to the second computing device.

“38. The method of claim 21, further comprising reducing noise associated with the encrypted result set and introduced by execution of the at least one homomorphic operation on the encrypted data.

“39. The method of claim 38, further comprising renormalizing at least a portion of the encrypted result set.

“40. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium on which are stored instructions executable by a processor to perform operations for providing access to an encrypted result set, the operations comprising: creating a homomorphic encryption (HE) context among at least two computing devices; instantiating, at least in part based on the HE context, a homomorphic work space (HWS) in a non-transitory, computer readable first memory of a first computing device of the at least two computing devices; loading encrypted data into the first memory, wherein the encrypted data is encrypted according to the HE context and wherein the first computing device lacks access to an unencrypted version of the encrypted data; generating an encrypted result set in the first memory by executing at least one homomorphic operation on at least a portion of the encrypted data according to instructions from a second computing device of the at least two computing devices; serializing at least the encrypted result set as a serialized object; transmitting, over a network, the serialized object including at least the encrypted result set to the second computing device.

“41. A system for providing access to an encrypted result set, the system comprising: a first computing device for creating a homomorphic encryption (HE) context among at least two computing devices including the first computing device, instantiating, at least in part based on the HE context, a homomorphic work space (HWS) in a non-transitory, computer readable first memory of the first computing device, and loading encrypted data into the first memory, wherein the encrypted data is encrypted according to the HE context and wherein the first computing device lacks access to an unencrypted version of the encrypted data; and a second computing device of the at least two computing devices for providing instructions to execute at least one homomorphic operation on at least a portion of the encrypted data, wherein the first computing device generates an encrypted result set in the first memory by executing the at least one homomorphic operation on the at least a portion of the encrypted data according to the instructions, serializes at least the encrypted result set as a serialized object, and transmits, over a network, the serialized object including at least the encrypted result set to the second computing device.”

For additional information on this patent application, see: Soon-Shiong, Patrick; Kupwade-Patil, Harsh; Seshadri, Ravi; Witchey, Nicholas J. Homomorphic Encryption In A Healthcare Network Environment, System And Methods. Filed July 27, 2020 and posted November 12, 2020. Patent URL: http://appft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PG01&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=%2220200358746%22.PGNR.&OS=DN/20200358746&RS=DN/20200358746

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