Apple has partnered with security firm Tresorit to offer CareKit developers extra privacy options. In doing so, it makes it more straightforward for hospitals to use Apple’s CareKit platform, by allowing it to more closely meet regulations about patient data.
Called ZeroKit, Tresorit’s security technology includes user authentication for patients and healthcare workers, end-to-end encryption of health data, and “zero knowledge” sharing of health data, meaning that data isn’t shared with any service as it transfers.
As Apple explains:
“Starting today, CareKit developers can use ZeroKit in their apps. ZeroKit complements CareKit: it’s a ‘Zero Knowledge’ User Authentication service and Encryption SDK that enables developers to protect PHI (Protected Health Information) with the best available methods in the cloud. Using ZeroKit, CareKit developers can reach HIPAA compliance easier which attracts patients and healthcare providers who are looking for the most secure solutions”
CareKit was first announced last year as an open-source platform designed to let developers and healthcare professionals create apps for patients.
As with any mobile health technology, the key in driving adoption is to get it used in hospitals and the healthcare field, which is what this added security will hopefully provide. ZeroKit’s founders reportedly approached Apple about integrating their security system into CareKit around four months ago.
Source: Apple
Via: Mashable
Luke Dormehl is a U.K.-based journalist and author, with a background working in documentary film for Channel 4 and the BBC. He is the author of The Apple Revolution and The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems … and Create More, both published by Penguin/Random House. His tech writing has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, Techmeme and other publications.
