Researchers Submit Patent Application, “Homomorphic Encryption In A Healthcare Network Environment, System And Methods”, for Approval (USPTO 20210377231): Nanthealth Inc.

2021 DEC 20 (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 Kupwade-Patil, Harsh (Plano, TX, US); Seshadri, Ravi (Plano, TX, US); Soon-Shiong, Patrick (Culver City, CA, US); Witchey, Nicholas J. (Laguna Hills, CA, US), filed on May 27, 2021, was made available online on December 2, 2021.

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 system for developing predictive algorithms using private healthcare data, the system comprising: a data custodian including an encrypted database distributed among a plurality of storage devices, the encrypted database storing a disease registry including homomorphically encrypted concomitancy and comorbidity data of a plurality of patients; and a user device operable to access the data custodian over a cloud network, retrieve a subset of the homomorphically encrypted concomitancy and comorbidity data, and execute a predictive analytics model on the retrieved data.

“22. The system of claim 21, wherein, in response to the user device accessing the data custodian over the cloud network, the data custodian instantiates a homomorphic work space (HWS) that has access to the homomorphically encrypted concomitancy and comorbidity data stored in the encrypted database.

“23. The system of claim 22, wherein, in response to the user device accessing the data custodian over the cloud network, the data custodian provides a public cryptographic key to the user device, the public cryptographic key having a corresponding private cryptographic key to the HWS.

“24. The system of claim 22, wherein the data custodian provides the user device with access to the HWS via an API.

“25. The system of claim 24, wherein the API translates a query from the user device, the subset of the homomorphically encrypted concomitancy and comorbidity data being pulled from the encrypted database and inserted into the HWS in response to the translated query.

“26. The system of claim 25, wherein the query comprises an unstructured keyword query.

“27. The system of claim 24, wherein the API includes homomorphic encryption primitives from a homomorphic encryption library.

“28. The system of claim 24, wherein, in response to the user device accessing the data custodian over the cloud network, the data custodian generates a structured encrypted vector from the subset of the homomorphically encrypted concomitancy and comorbidity data and sends the structured encrypted vector and the API to the user device.

“29. The system of claim 22, wherein the HWS is instantiated only at the data custodian.

“30. The system of claim 22, wherein the HWS comprises a virtual memory space distributed across one or more memory locations.

“31. They stem of claim 22, wherein the HWS is built on top of homomorphic encryption primitives from a homomorphic encryption library.

“32. The system of claim 21, wherein, in response to the user device accessing the data custodian over the cloud network, the data custodian constructs a symmetric cryptographic session.

“33. The system of claim 21, wherein, in response to the user device accessing the data custodian over the cloud network, the data custodian creates a query-specific vector space with a vector containing the subset of the homomorphically encrypted concomitancy and comorbidity data.

“34. The system of claim 21, wherein the data custodian authenticates one or more anonymized operations performed on the homomorphically encrypted concomitancy and comorbidity data by the user device.

“35. The system of claim 21, further comprising a patient device operable to define a set of permissions authorizing the retrieval of the subset of the homomorphically encrypted concomitancy and comorbidity data by the user device.

“36. The system of claim 21, wherein the data custodian decrypts a result of the predictive analytics model and sends the decrypted result to the user device.

“37. A method of supporting the development of predictive algorithms using private healthcare data, the method comprising: storing a disease registry including homomorphically encrypted concomitancy and comorbidity data of a plurality of patients in an encrypted database of a data custodian, the encrypted database being distributed among a plurality of storage devices; and, in response to a user device accessing the data custodian over a cloud network, providing a subset of the homomorphically encrypted concomitancy and comorbidity data to the user device for execution of a predictive analytics model on the provided data.

“38. The method of claim 37, further comprising decrypting a result of the predictive analytics model and sending the decrypted result to the user device.

“39. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium on which are stored instructions executable by a processor to perform operations for supporting the development of predictive algorithms using private healthcare data, the operations comprising: storing a disease registry including homomorphically encrypted concomitancy and comorbidity data of a plurality of patients in an encrypted database of a data custodian, the encrypted database being distributed among a plurality of storage devices; and, in response to a user device accessing the data custodian over a cloud network, providing a subset of the homomorphically encrypted concomitancy and comorbidity data to the user device for execution of a predictive analytics model on the provided data.

“40. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 39, wherein the operations further comprise decrypting a result of the predictive analytics model and sending the decrypted result to the user device.”

For additional information on this patent application, see: Kupwade-Patil, Harsh; Seshadri, Ravi; Soon-Shiong, Patrick; Witchey, Nicholas J. Homomorphic Encryption In A Healthcare Network Environment, System And Methods. Filed May 27, 2021 and posted December 2, 2021. Patent URL: https://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=%2220210377231%22.PGNR.&OS=DN/20210377231&RS=DN/20210377231

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