Biometrics Solutions in e-Health Security : A Comprehensive Literature Review

Abstract: The widespread of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in healthcare makes it indispensable in the health industry. Through the advancement in internet technologies, a computer and telecommunication system, the healthcare industry is being revolutionized. These developments afford the health industry with enormous benefits such as; to improve the quality of health service as well as to reduce cost. However, the industry still grapples with security and privacy challenges in relation to patients’ health information. Security is considered very essential in healthcare due to the sensitive nature of health information. The study embarks on a systematic literature review to report on the security and privacy issues in electronic health domain. It offers a comprehensive overview of biometric technology applications in addressing electronic healthcare security issues. The research concludes that:
Security requirements of electronic healthcare are mainly centered around; data confidentiality, data authenticity, data integrity, and user/entity authentication.
Biometrics offer effective and convenient method of achieving the above security requirements through biometric encryption and biometric authentication.
Biometrics has wide deployments in healthcare industry due to their ability to offer reliable security solutions for electronic health data.