The patient health smart card initiative uses a smart card operating system (OS) of Siemens. This OS is embedded onto the highly secure contact-based Infineon smart card controller SLE 66CX680PE. The high-performance crypto-controller features an integral security concept providing multiple levels of physical protection and encryption and is certified according to common criteria ‘EAL 5+ high’ certification. It offers 68Kb of EPROM, 196Kb of ROM, and 4Kb of RAM.
The patient health smart cards are issued by the affiliated and related medical facilities with the patient’s printed photo. To use the card, the patient inserts the card into a card reader and enters a private, personal identification number (PIN) to unlock the data on the smart card security crypto-controller. The crypto-controller securely stores the demographic data for the patient, including name, gender, contact information, allergies, current medical history and lab results. The patient card is based on the health card solution of Siemens and meets the FDA’s requirements for class 1 medical devices that are mandatory to introduce medical products or services.
The ideal concept of having integrated care across all hospitals and institutions will take a while, said Doris Hermann, vice president and general manager of security and identity management at Siemens. Using a smart card is a way in between. Because first you have the advantages of data on the card, then we can help hospitals to gradually migrate towards even more sophisticated IT concepts.
Compared to the current method of using paper documents, smart card technology improves administrational efficiency and patient safety by providing accurate medical data and insurance coverage information, said Dr Helmut Gassel, vice president and general manager of chip card and security integrated circuits at Infineon Technologies. Infineon is committed to serving the health card industry. This program has the potential to further initiate patient smart cards throughout the US.
