Ontology for HIPAA compliant cloud services

Providers can use an ontology for organizing, sharing, and protecting healthcare data. Specifically, ontology-driven data management enhances interoperability between healthcare systems for secure data exchange, improving patient care and ensuring HIPAA compliance.

What is an ontology?

An ontology is like a blueprint for organizing information. It defines how different pieces of data relate to each other and provides a common language for these relationships. It is like a detailed map that shows how various data points connect, making it easier to understand, share, and protect information.

Ontology in cloud-based healthcare services

“With [the] increasing adoption of digitized patient records and physician’s notes, managing patient records and medical data has become a major challenge for healthcare providers. Hence, cloud-based healthcare services have flooded the market with their promise of ubiquitous access, scalability, and low cost,” explains a publication in the 4th International IBM Cloud Academy Conference.

In the U.S., the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) regulates the privacy and security of this data, and all cloud-based healthcare services must comply with it.

Furthermore, covered entities, like healthcare providers, health plans, and clearinghouses, can use an ontology to help manage their data.

How an ontology can help providers

“Ontologies provide several advantages for the conceptualization of entities in a domain,” as evidenced by a study on an ontology-based approach for consolidating patient data.  

More specifically, “Ontologies are valuable for organizing information within a specific domain by clearly representing domain knowledge, applying logical reasoning, enabling the reuse of existing knowledge, facilitating data aggregation, and uncovering new connections between ideas.”

Standardized terminology 

Ontology ensures that doctors, nurses, insurance companies, and cloud service providers use the same terms in the same way, reducing confusion and potential errors when sharing and processing data.

Interoperability

The previous study explains that "Storing data systematically in clinical repositories, rather than ad hoc methods, brings several advantages such as utilizing standardized healthcare practices… " 

Since different healthcare systems often have their own ways of storing and processing data, ontology acts as a universal translator, allowing these systems to communicate, improving coordinated care and HIPAA compliance.

Privacy and security

Covered entities can categorize different types of protected health information (PHI) to define access controls so sensitive data is only accessible to authorized personnel.

Data integration

Healthcare data comes from different sources like hospitals, labs, and pharmacies, so creating an ontology can help combine this data, making it easier to analyze while ensuring HIPAA compliance.

Automated compliance monitoring 

Ontologies can model HIPAA regulations, enabling automated systems to monitor compliance. These systems can check if data handling practices align with HIPAA rules, reducing the risk of violations.

Using ontology in a HIPAA compliant domain 

The first publication states providers “can use this ontology to determine the security and privacy policies that should be implemented by the cloud service provider in order to ensure HIPAA compliance.”

Additionally, they model ontology into three main components:

1. Stakeholders: "The main classes of stakeholders include covered entities, business associates, exempt entities, and patients."
2. Security rules: These rules apply to entities that transmit patients’ health information electronically. They include “security rules, safeguards [physical and technical], risk analysis and personal health information (includes diagnosis, treatment and doctor conversations)."
3. Privacy rules: These rules protect the privacy of individually identifiable health information, ensuring that only authorized individuals and entities can access data. More specifically, "The HIPAA Privacy Rule protects the privacy of individually identifiable health information, called protected health information (PHI)".

How to create an ontology for HIPAA compliant cloud services

1. Identify data elements: Providers should start by listing all the data that need to be managed, like patient records, lab results, billing information, etc.

2. Define relationships: Providers should determine how these data elements are related. For example, a patient record can include multiple lab results and billing entries.

3. Establish access controls: Only certain providers should access each type of data. For example, healthcare providers can access detailed medical histories, while billing information should be accessible to administrative staff.

4. Ensure HIPAA compliance: Providers must ensure that the ontology aligns with HIPAA requirements, defining how to encrypt data, who has access to what, and how to handle data breaches.

5. Implement and test: Providers can use the ontology to organize their cloud services and run tests to ensure that everything works as expected and complies with HIPAA regulations.

How HIPAA compliant emails can help

HIPAA compliant emailing platforms, like Paubox, automatically encrypt emails without additional steps, reducing the risk of human error and ensuring that protected health information (PHI) is secure in electronic communications.

Specifically, HIPAA compliant emails align with ontology-driven data management by standardizing and securing emails. Providers can use standardized terminology and protocols to ensure consistent PHI handling across systems, reducing misunderstandings and errors while maintaining patient privacy.

For example, Paubox uses Amazon Web Services (AWS) for its secure cloud infrastructure, ensuring HIPAA compliance. AWS meets various security standards, including GDPR and CISPE Conduct of Conduct. These security features include full encryption of all emails, ExecProtect to stop display name spoofing, geofencing to quarantine emails from high-risk countries, and domain age verification to block new malicious domains. 

Additionally, providers can use Paubox’s Email API solutions to integrate normalized data into their repositories without compromising patient privacy or data integrity. Encryption technology protects data in transit and at rest, safeguarding it from unauthorized access and breaches. 

It supports the reuse of healthcare interoperability standards and ensures that clinical data remains readily accessible for future research endeavors, promoting comprehensive and impactful studies across single- or multicenter settings.

Go deeper: Paubox vs LuxSci: HIPAA compliant email software review

FAQs

Who must comply with HIPAA?

Healthcare providers, health plans, healthcare clearinghouses, and their business associates who handle patient information on their behalf must comply with HIPAA regulations.

How does an ontology help with HIPAA compliance?

An ontology helps standardize terminology and data integration, ensuring consistent use of terms and improving data security practices.

How does HIPAA regulate data integration?

HIPAA requires healthcare organizations to integrate data securely, ensuring patient privacy is maintained and only authorized individuals can access data.