“Systems And Methods For Computing With Private Healthcare Data” in Patent Application Approval Process (USPTO 20240062860): Nference Inc.

2024 MAR 11 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- A patent application by the inventors ANAND, Akash (Bhagalpur, IN); ARAVAMUDAN, Murali (Andover, MA, US); ARDHANARI, Sankar (Chapel Hill, NC, US); AWASTHI, Samir (Jamaica Plain, MA, US); BARVE, Rakesh (Bangalore, IN); MURUGADOSS, Karthik (Cambridge, MA, US); NAQVI, Shamim (Morristown, NJ, US); RAJASEKHARAN, Ajit (West Windsor, NJ, US); SOUNDARARAJAN, Venkataramanan (Andover, MA, US); WAGNER, Tyler (Boston, MA, US), filed on October 26, 2023, was made available online on February 22, 2024, according to news reporting originating from Washington, D.C., by NewsRx correspondents.

This patent application is assigned to Nference Inc. (Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States).

The following quote was obtained by the news editors from the background information supplied by the inventors: “Hospitals, healthcare providers and care givers collect large amounts of data from patients. It is a necessary part of the processes by which healthcare is provided to members of the public. Typically, a patient provides data to the care giver as a part of receiving treatment for his/her ailments. This data is stored by the care giver and may be used later, inter alia, for research purposes. In another typical scenario data may be collected from consumers via one or more devices, e.g., pulse oximeter, glucose monitor, smart watch, fitness bracelet, etc. In such use cases, the collected data is often used to analyze a patient’s health in a continuous manner or over a period of time. Consequently, huge amounts of patient information may be accumulated by service providers.

“Many aspects of patient data collected by care givers and service providers may be subject to privacy regulations. The usefulness and benefit of processing data collected from patients is clear and acknowledged by the public. However, there is a growing concern of maintaining the privacy of user data, particularly when the data can be used to identify the patient. Such concerns are the basis of HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) regulations initially passed in 1996 by the US Congress. Many other countries have also promulgated similar regulations and legislations. Generally, HIPAA and other regulations limit the release of personal information that may result in identification of members of the public or details of their physical attributes or biometric data.

“There is thus a need to enable biomedical (and other types of) data to be analyzed by computational processes under the constraint of maintaining the privacy of the individual patient or consumer. Such a system and methods will consequently be of great commercial, social and scientific benefit to society.”

In addition to the background information obtained for this patent application, NewsRx journalists also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent application: “In an aspect, a method for computing with private healthcare data is described. The method includes forming at least one secure enclave, wherein the at least one secure enclave is available to one or more processors for running one or more application computing processes in isolation from one or more unauthorized computing processes running on the one or more processors. The method further includes pre-provisioning software within the at least one secure enclave, wherein the pre-provisioned software is configured to execute instructions of the one or more application computing processes on the one or more processors by receiving input data in an encrypted form, loading the input data into the at least one secure enclave, loading one or more programs for analyzing the input data into the at least one secure enclave, running the one or more programs for analyzing the input data using the at least one secure enclave, decrypting the at least one of input data using one or more cryptographic keys and executing the one or more application computing processes based on the decrypted at least one of input data to generate output data.

“In yet another aspect, a system for computing private health care data is described. The system includes a non-transitory memory and one or more hardware processors configured to read instructions from the non-transitory memory that, when executed, causes the one or more hardware processors to perform operations including forming at least one secure enclave, wherein the at least one secure enclave is available to the one or more hardware processors for running one or more application computing processes in isolation from one or more unauthorized computing processes running on the one or more hardware processors; and pre-provisioning software within the at least one secure enclave, wherein the pre-provisioned software is configured to execute instructions of the one or more application computing processes on the one or more processors by receiving input data or the instructions for the one or more application computing processes in an encrypted form, loading the input data into the at least one secure enclave, loading one or more programs for analyzing the input data into the at least one secure enclave, running the one or more programs for analyzing the input data using the at least one secure enclave, decrypting the input data using one or more cryptographic keys and executing the one or more application computing processes based on the decrypted input data to generate output data.

“Various objectives, features, and advantages of the disclosed subject matter can be more fully appreciated with reference to the following detailed description of the disclosed subject matter when considered in connection with the following drawings, in which like reference numerals identify like elements.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A method comprising: forming at least one secure enclave, wherein the at least one secure enclave is available to one or more processors for running one or more application computing processes in isolation from one or more unauthorized computing processes running on the one or more processors; and pre-provisioning software within the at least one secure enclave, wherein the pre-provisioned software is configured to execute instructions of the one or more application computing processes on the one or more processors by: receiving input data in an encrypted form; loading the input data into the at least one secure enclave; loading one or more programs for analyzing the input data into the at least one secure enclave; running the one or more programs for analyzing the input data using the at least one secure enclave; decrypting the at least one of input data using one or more cryptographic keys; and executing the one or more application computing processes based on the decrypted at least one of input data to generate output data.

“2. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the input data in an encrypted form comprises receiving the input data from a data provider.

“3. The method of claim 2, further comprising de-identifying the input data prior to loading the set of the input data into the at least one secure enclave, wherein de-identifying the input data comprises removing information that identifies one or more individuals or entities from the input data.

“4. The method of claim 1, further comprising: encrypting the output data using the one or more cryptographic keys; and providing external access to the encrypted output data.

“5. The method of claim 1 further comprising receiving from an instruction provider, the one or more programs for analyzing the input data.

“6. The method of claim 1, further comprising: generating a proof of execution, wherein the proof of execution proves that the one or more instructions of the one or more application computing processes operated on the received input data; and providing external access to the proof of execution.

“7. The method of claim 1, wherein the input data comprises at least an electronic health record.

“8. The method of claim 1, wherein forming the at least one secure enclave comprises constructing an isolated memory partition that forms the at least one secure enclave.

“9. The method of claim 1, wherein decrypting the input data using one or more cryptographic keys comprises decrypting the input data using one or more cryptographic keys contained within the at least one secure enclave.

“10. The method of claim 4, wherein providing external access to the encrypted output data comprises providing the encrypted output data as an input in a subsequent secure enclave.

“11. A system comprising: a non-transitory memory; and one or more hardware processors configured to read instructions from the non-transitory memory that, when executed, cause the one or more hardware processors to perform operations comprising: forming at least one secure enclave, wherein the at least one secure enclave is available to the one or more hardware processors for running one or more application computing processes in isolation from one or more unauthorized computing processes running on the one or more hardware processors; and pre-provisioning software within the at least one secure enclave, wherein the pre-provisioned software is configured to execute instructions of the one or more application computing processes on the one or more processors by: receiving input data or the instructions for the one or more application computing processes in an encrypted form; loading the input data into the at least one secure enclave; loading one or more programs for analyzing the input data into the at least one secure enclave; running the one or more programs for analyzing the input data using the at least one secure enclave; decrypting the input data using one or more cryptographic keys; and executing the one or more application computing processes based on the decrypted input data to generate output data.

“12. The system of claim 11, wherein receiving the input data in an encrypted form comprises receiving the input data from a data provider.

“13. The system of claim 12, wherein the operations further comprise, de-identifying the input data prior to loading the set of the input data into the at least one secure enclave, wherein de-identifying the input data comprises removing information that identifies one or more individuals or entities from the input data.

“14. The system of claim 11, wherein the operations further comprise: encrypting the output data using the one or more cryptographic keys; and providing external access to the encrypted output data

“15. The system of claim 11, wherein the operations further comprise, receiving from an instruction provider, the one or more programs for analyzing the input data.

“16. The system of claim 11, wherein the operations further comprise: generating a proof of execution that proves that the one or more instructions of the one or more application computing processes operated on the received input data; and providing external access to the proof of execution.

“17. The system of claim 11, wherein the input data comprises at least an electronic health record.

“18. The system of claim 11, wherein forming the at least one secure enclave comprises constructing an isolated memory partition that forms the at least one secure enclave.

“19. The system of claim 11, wherein decrypting the input data using one or more cryptographic keys comprises decrypting the input data using one or more cryptographic keys contained within the at least one secure enclave.

“20. The system of claim 14, wherein providing external access to the encrypted output data comprises providing the encrypted output data as an input in a subsequent secure enclave.”

URL and more information on this patent application, see: ANAND, Akash; ARAVAMUDAN, Murali; ARDHANARI, Sankar; AWASTHI, Samir; BARVE, Rakesh; MURUGADOSS, Karthik; NAQVI, Shamim; RAJASEKHARAN, Ajit; SOUNDARARAJAN, Venkataramanan; WAGNER, Tyler. Systems And Methods For Computing With Private Healthcare Data. U.S. Patent Application Number 20240062860, filed October 26, 2023 and posted February 22, 2024. Patent URL (for desktop use only): https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/external.html?q=(20240062860)&db=US-PGPUB&type=ids

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