Heterogeneous signcryption with proxy re-encryption and its application in EHR systems

Electronic health record (EHR) systems provide the platform that enables digital documentation of patients health information. Practically, EHR systems aid in delivering quality medical healthcare and limiting medical errors. However, EHR systems are associated with known technical and security challenges such as interoperability, confidentiality, authentication, auditability, and access control. To overcome these challenges, we first propose a new heterogeneous signcryption with proxy re-encryption (HSC-PRE) scheme. Secondly, via an example design, we demonstrate how our scheme can be utilized to achieve a secure, interoperable, auditable and accessible EHR system using blockchain technology. The blockchain technology is required to assure interoperability and auditability while the HSC-PRE assures confidentiality, authentication and access control. Via comprehensive security analysis (in random oracle model (ROM)), we affirm that the HSC-PRE scheme is secure. Besides, it shows up efficient against other recent related schemes.