EU research group talks up access control, biometrics in healthcare

A European Union-funded innovation project called Panacea is showing biometric access control software tools that would be a part of a healthcare identity management platform.

The tool kit, for human-to-machine and machine-to-machine interfaces, includes software for secure information sharing, dynamic risk assessment, security by design support and compliance.

Panacea’s focus is healthcare cybersecurity. The components of its tool kit were discussed at a biometrics research conference this month by vendor Idemia and Forth, the Institute of Computer Science of the Foundation for Research and Technology.

Health care is a prime mover when it comes to access control. The industry is the largest portion of market value for logical access control. It also is, along with the military, an epicenter for security demands.

Panacea has developed tools, including biometric facial recognition, that it claims will resolve the common problem of credential sharing in hospitals. It also promised two authentication factors and frictionless biometric systems.

The public-private organization also told viewers they will make it possible to manage authentication with decentralized biometric databases, giving system users GDPR-compliant biometrics. Its developers also reportedly have developed systems that recognize people wearing masks.

Panacea leaders claim that they have been central in “re-animating” standards work in ISO SC 37 Technical Report 21419, which deals with “cross-jurisdictional aspects of biometric technologies.”

They have prioritized several concepts including the correlation of medical files for research use, universal ID management of health care employees and the secure access to records that are shared and protected.

Other priorities include easy patient ID checking and making sure staff identity and qualifications are validated at the point of care.

Article Topics

access management  |  biometrics  |  biometrics research  |  cybersecurity  |  EAB  |  EU  |  European Association for Biometrics  |  facial recognition  |  IDEMIA  |  Panacea  |  patient identification