Biometric Technology - Research Proposal Example

Biometric for (data privacy) Research proposal Name University affiliation Executive summary This is a research proposal that focuses on the introduction o the biometric systems in the healthcare organization. The proposal shows the significance of the adoption of these new technologies in any organization. It shows the situation analysis showing t environment in which these systems would work. The proposal shows the goals and the objectives that ought to be achieved in the employment of these new technologies in this organization. The targeted groups in this study are the patients who visit our health premises and the healthcare professionals who work in this facility. Moreover, the proposal evaluates how we shall measure the success of the project and also the risk factors involved in the adoption of the biometrics equipments in this organization. Some of the healthcare issue this research would address is first the issue to do with patients’ medical information security. This project would solve the common challenge that face many health facilities concerning safeguarding the clients’ private information. Another issue that would be addressed by this project is convenience and efficiency of the service delivery of the workers in this organization. TABLE OF CONTENT 1.0 Introduction………………………………………………………………………… 2.0 Situation analysis………………………………………………………………… 2.1 Rationale…………………………………………………………………………… 2.2 Feasibility assessment ……………………………………………………………… 3.0 Target group………………………………………………………………………… 4.0 Goals and objectives………………………………………………………………… 5.0 Time line…………………………………………………………………………… 6.0 Project activities……………………………………………………………………… 7.0 Evaluation …………………………………………………………………………… 8.0 Budget resources …………………………………………………………………… 9.0 Risk analysis ………………………………………………………………………… 10.0 References ………………………………………………………………………… Introduction Biometrics is a field of science that involves the technology of measuring and analyzing biological data of human beings. Specialists measure and analyze the human body characteristics. They include fingerprints, voice patterns, facial patterns, eye retina, hand measurements, blood groups, DNA tests and individuals chromosomes (Kern, Edwards, & Kaushal, 2014). This technology is used in most cases in hospitals for the authentication purposes. Authentication through biometric verification is increasingly becoming common in healthcare field, the corporate world and public security systems. The two driving forces behind the increasing demand of biometric technologies are security and convenience (Krawczyk & Jain, 2005). Most of the biometric devices consist of a reader or a scanner that scan the characteristics of a person. There is also software that converts the scanned information into digital form. Then, there are databases that store the biometric data for comparison purposes. The biometric identifiers are measurable characteristics used to describe and label a person( Harvey, J., Avery, A. J., Hibberd, R., & Barber, N. 2014). They are grouped into two groups, the physiological and behavioral characteristics. The physiological characteristics are related to the shape of the body, and the physiological identifiers include fingerprints, palm print, retina, hand geometry, palm vein, facial recognition and many more. Behavioral characteristics, on the other hand, are related to the patterns of individual’s behaviors (Krawczyk & Jain, 2005). They include voice, typing rhythm, gait and many more. The fact that biometric identifiers are specific and unique to individuals; they are more reliable in the process of verification of individuals’ identity (Kern, Edwards, & Kaushal, 2014). This research proposal focuses of carrying out research that would come up with healthcare biometrics that would help getting biometric data from patients and keeping them safe from other people. Healthcare biometric in its definition are the biometric application used by doctors and nurses in monitoring patients.This biometrics includes patient records storage, patient identification, the access control, and the work force management in the healthcare setting (King, 2013). Situation analysis Rationale As mentioned earlier, biometric technology is increasing on demand since many fields are now adopting it to ease some of the identification challenges they might be encountering. In the health care field, it is used to keep records of patient so that when needed, it can be retrieved easily without confusion. In the security field, it is used to detect people who could be having criminal record history. In the contemporary world, electoral systems in many countries have adopted biometric voter registers to minimize issues of electoral cheating (Buist, D. M., Knight Ross, et al., 2014) Education institutions to some extent are adopting this system in keeping the records of students in addition to paperwork. All these show how much this science is needed and increasingly being utilized in various fields in our daily life. According to Diepeveen, S., Ling, T., Suhrcke,eta al., (2013), In the modern healthcare field, many healthcare facilities are employing biometric security architecture. The security of the patients’ personal data is quite important; it is against the law for the individuals’ private information to be exposed to the public. In fact, it is the violation of the right to privacy (Al-Hijaili & AbdulAziz). Therefore, one can easily sue another successfully in a court of law for disclosing his private information. Therefore, the use of biometric devices can be of big importance if the rights to privacy of the patients are not violated by the health care providers and other stakeholders. There is also an increasing need for the healthcare providers to identify their patients with a high degree of certainty. The identity verification of patients in the hospitals using biometric devices gives an identity assurance. This has helped much in increasing privacy and the security of the data. Personal medical data which includes biorhythm recordings and digital images are much preferred because they are used in diagnostic and therapy purposes (Kern, Edwards, & Kaushal, 2014). Most of the healthcare premises that have blended these technologies in their operations have witnessed efficiencies in their service delivery, reduced the service costs, increased clients’ satisfaction and reduced fraud to lower scales (Buist, D. M., Knight Ross, et al., 2014) Other importance of the adoption of the biometric technologies in the healthcare facilities include prevention of duplication of patients’ medical records, elimination of medical identity theft, protection of the access of the patients’ data, and improve patients experience in the course of service delivery . In the modern world, ensuring of the security of the medical records has become a challenge to many healthcare facilities. This is because modern technologies are being integrated in into the existing medical services (Kern, Edwards, & Kaushal, 2014). Therefore, it becomes a challenge to the health care providers to manage the processes. Hence, some chances begin to emerge where many outsiders can easily access to the patients’ information (Krawczyk & Jain, 2005). With the adoption of the electronic medical records in this healthcare field, it is becoming more and more common for healthcare professionals to edit and view patients’ records using their laptops and tablets (Al-Hijaili & AbdulAziz). Therefore, the patients’ personal information is at risk of being disclosed, and altered by third parties. For any healthcare facility to protect patients’ information privacy as required by the US government constitution and constitution of other nations, they have to adopt the use of the secure biometric systems (Krawczyk & Jain, 2005). Moreover, to increase the accuracy and efficiency in the process of authentication and identification of patients, a modern health care facility must integrate biometric systems in its services (Elwell, L., Powell, J.,et al,. 2014)This applies best in a facility that has high numbers of patients like level five and referral hospitals. In such facilities, there are numerous healthcare professionals who are always in the contract with the patients' records. Therefore, the use of the biometric systems will ease the process of admitting, diagnosing, treating and discharging patients faster. Studies that have shown that people are fond of forgetting their passwords write them down or stick them to the computers monitors or even store them in their mobile phones. Other people use easily guessed passwords that can be guessed by other parties (Kern, Edwards, & Kaushal, 2014). More studies have revealed that about 60% to 80% of the workers in different institutions disclose their passwords to fellow workers (Brown, 2012). Such security breach also happens in the hospital settings where healthcare professionals share their passwords, write them on devices they use or even save them in the phones. This has led to many their parties using these passwords to access patients’ information. More researches have revealed that 40% of the help desk calls in information communication firms are for forgotten passwords (Mogli, 2011). Such companies spend over$150 per user annually to maintain secure passwords. In addition, up to 15% of the information technology budget is spent on the information security (Brown, 2012). Therefore, from this data, we can conclude that the issue of information security especially in healthcare setting quite wants .Thus; this biometric proposal would be of big Importance to this organization. It is going to be a game changer in both service delivery and elimination of the patients’ information security challenge (King, 2013). . Feasibility Assessment The biometric technologies have come at the right time where the society indeed needs them. The current global population is growing in double digits every year. This means that the environmental settings in our healthcare facilities also need to change and boosted so that they can match with the growing population. Gone are the days when organizations should rely on the manual and paper work in the service delivery. Any serious organization value the quality of services they offer to their clients (Al-Hijaili, S., & AbdulAziz). Therefore, technology has come and is available to be used by the organizations so that consumers get high quality and efficient services. In simple terms, the global demographic environment welcomes the use of scientific technologies such as biometric systems to give services to consumers. The invention of the biometric knowledge is also timely at the moment since the world has recently had an increased both human and information insecurity. Therefore, the adoption of the biometric systems will help much in many fields and to curb some of the problems that arise due to insecurity (Brown, 2012). Among the sectors, that welcome much these biometric technology is the healthcare sector. We have seen earlier how the technologies can help in the reduction of the patients’ information disclosure. They help the healthcare providers to find detailed health information of patients so that they can be treated in a better way. Moreover, they have improved the quality of services given to the patients. All these mean that biometric systems would be much welcomed by the health professionals because of their convenience. The environments in the healthcare facilities mean accommodate of the use of these systems because these professionals are already available, other related facilities are available. Therefore, it would be easy to integrate these systems into the existing systems. Those people to use it will need little training to know how they work. Some of the issues to be considered when establishing biometric technologies in the healthcare facility are that it would be a challenge to take the information from patients who are too old or who do manual work (Krawczyk & Jain, 2005). This would be hard in a situation where things like fingerprints, and palm prints are needed. Such individuals may have lost their fingerprints due to their manual tasks they do, or the old individual have lost them due to age. Another thing issue that could affect the implementation of the biometric systems in the healthcare sectors is that these facilities are too expensive. In most cases, these new technological equipments are very costly to some of the health facilities Krawczyk & Jain, 2005). For examples equipments that are used to do DNA tests and other complicated tests are costly. Therefore, those health organizations that well established are the ones that afford such equipments. This means that their costs are transferred to the patients’ bills. Thus, most patients;’ shy such big hospitals and resort to small hospitals that offer affordable services (Brown, 2012). In other terms, when this organization adopts these biometric technologies, some patients would shy from coming for the services for this organization due to high charges. Some of the stakeholders who would be consulted in the implementation of the project are the government authorities through the ministry of health. This authority would determine if the project is viable and will help in the alleviation of the claimed problems. The judiciary arm of government would also be consulted over the establishment of the biometric facilities in the organization. As discussed earlier, the use of biometric systems touches on the issue of individual privacy right. Therefore, the implementers would seek advice on how best these systems would be used so that the whole exercise does not violate the rights of individual privacy (King, 2013). . Other stakeholders who would be consulted are the researchers and specialists in the issues to do with biometric sciences. These specialists are the ones who will advise the organization on what information should be targeted from the patients. They would advise the implementers on the best ways they can structure and use their biometric structures. These stakeholders would also provide the organization with past data that can be used by the implementers. Target group The adoption of biometric systems in this organization targets a number of the stakeholders. One of the beneficiaries as mentioned earlier are the patients who would be visiting our health premises for treatment. The biometrics as discussed would improve greatly the service delivery in terms of quality and efficiency. This means that the patients would be taking a short time to get served; there would be no time wastage since the registration; diagnosis and retrieval of information for patients would be easier. Another targeted group who would be the beneficiaries of these biometric systems is the healthcare professionals. These technologies would improve their output; they would be able to attend to many patients as compared to the current manual system that is used in diagnosing and even treatment of the patients. Other stakeholders who would use these biometric systems are the organization’s subordinate staffs who deal with record keeping. They will be able to keep patients records in an organized manner hence easy retrieval if the need arises. Goals and Objectives The main goal of the adoption and integration of biometrics in the service delivery of this organization is to increase the security of the patients’ information and improve overall efficiency of the organization. The objectives include; -To improve the quality and speed of service to our clients through the use of biometrics systems; this would enable our health professionals to serve many customers within the shortest time possible. This is possible because the biometrics will have to digitalize most of the activities in the organization. The speed and the quality of services would be realized just a few days after the introduction of this biometrics (Elwell, L., Powell, J.,et al,. 2014)The biometric would serve ten customers within the same time where the current system serves two customers. -The biometrics aims at cultivating and building confidence and trust in our customers. This is because the use of the biometrics will ensure the safety of the clients’ medical information since most of the information will be kept in electronic form therefore, there would be few authorized individuals with passwords who will be handling this private information. The trust and confidence of our customers will start bearing fruits some few months after introduction of this biometrics. The trust of customers can be measured through the loyalty, when they comeback for the services. . -The adoption of the biometrics aims at boosting our organization’s competitive muscles in the health care industry. The current health care industry is too competitive; therefore, the players have to strategize on how to compete effectively; thus, the adoption and integration of biometrics in our firm would be a game changer in its performance. Our competitive capacity will have to double within just a span of six months after the adoption of biometrics hence, serve many customers consequently more revenue. Timeline The proposed research would take about a period of about two weeks right from the time of data collection to analysis through conclusions. The collection of data through questionnaires and interviews would take one week, the analysis, interpretation and conclusion would take another week. This research would study would start as from 1st February to 15th February 2015. The cost of the study would a bit reasonable because the study would involve several stakeholders. Timetable 1st to 7th February Data collection 8-9st February Recording and arranging 10-12nd February Data analysis 13-14TH February Data Interpretation 15th February Drawing conclusion Project activities The Main project activities that would be included in the program include; -Short training of the research assistance that will be involved in the research work; this would help the researcher equip his assistance with the necessary skills they ought to have while they would be in the field. -There would be a pilot study where the senior researcher will conduct a brief examination of the issues to be studied within the organization so that he can find out the challenges he may encounter during the real study. -The researcher would collect all the required tools and materials needed during the study and set them ready so that when he embarks into the field, the research will be carried in a more efficient manner. -Moreover, the researcher would seek authority from the relevant authorities to have the permission to carry out the research. This would help him not to encounter some legal issues that may disturb his study. Evaluation One of the ways we will use to know that the biometric systems are helpful to an organization is through examining the number of patients visiting our health facility. In case the number of patients visiting our facility after the initiation of this project, then we shall know that the project has succeeded. The second way we shall measure the success of our project is when the patients comeback for our services. Attracting of customers is one challenge and retaining those customers is another challenge too. Therefore, any organization should be in a position to attract and retain those customers (Elwell, L., Powell, J.,et al,. 2014)If the customer come back for our services, then it will be clear that our customers have are satisfied with our services that is why they are loyal to us. Another way we shall measure the success of our biometric project is when the complaints from customers about theft of their medical identity and information reduce. The decrease of such companies will prove to us that indeed the project is a success. Moreover, we shall celebrate when the rates of theft and frauds in our premises decrease because of the adoption of the biometric identifiers. We will acknowledge that the project is of big help to the organization. Budget resources The costs that would be incurred are; -Personnel- Those specialists who would be using these biometric machines -Equipments- The costs of the biometric equipments -Installation- The costs of installing these biometric systems. -Maintenance- The costs of repair and maintenance of these biometric machines -Training- The costs of the training of those people who would be handling these biometric devices Item amount personnel $30,000 Equipments purchase $60,000 Installation $5,000 Maintenance cost per year $20,000 Procurement process costs $10,000 Training $25,000 Total Approximately $15000 Risk analysis Risk management table Type of risk Potential impact Management strategy to eliminate the risk Patients’ Information leakage Third parties may steal or alter the medical identity of the patients Authorize specific individuals to handle the patients’ records so that they may be responsible and accountable for anything. Duplication of patients records Cause confusion in the process of retrieval of information Keeping the patients’ biometric features other than paper information Biometric systems failure Loss of patients; medical information Keeping backup records in case of the system failure the health providers may still use the backup records to serve the patients High costs of repair and maintenance May reduce the organization’s income due to high costs The management should encourage careful handling of these biometric equipments to reduce wear and tear. References AbdulAziz, M. (2011). Biometric in health care security systems, Iris-face fusion system. International Journal of Academic Research, 3(1), 11-19. Brown, C. L. (2012). Health-Care Data Protection and Biometric Authentication Policies: Comparative Culture and Technology Acceptance in China and in the United States. Review Of Policy Research, 29(1), 141-159. Buist, D. M., Knight Ross, N., Reid, R. J., & Grossman, D. C. (2014). Electronic Health Risk Assessment Adoption in an Integrated Healthcare System. American Journal of Managed Care, 20(1), 62-69. Diepeveen, S., Ling, T., Suhrcke, M., Roland, M., & Marteau, T. M. (2013). Public acceptability of government intervention to change health-related behaviors: a systematic review and narrative synthesis. BMC Public Health, 13(1), 1-11. Elwell, L., Powell, J., Wordsworth, S., & Cummins, C. (2014). Challenges of implementing routine health behavior change support in a children's hospital setting. Patient Education & Counseling, 96(1), 113-119. Harvey, J., Avery, A. J., Hibberd, R., & Barber, N. (2014). Meeting user needs in national healthcare systems: lessons from early adopter community pharmacists using the electronic prescriptions service. BMC Medical Informatics & Decision Making, 14(1), 1- 11. Kern, L. M., Edwards, A., & Kaushal, R. (2014). The Patient-Centered Medical Home, Electronic Health Records, and Quality of Care. Annals Of Internal Medicine, 160(11), 741-749. King, R. (2013). Explainer: Healthcare and medical biometrics. Retrieved from http://www.biometricupdate.com/201312/explainer-healthcare-and-medical-biometrics Krawczyk, S & Jain, A. (2005). Securing electronic medical records using biometric authentication. Michigan State University. Retrived from http://www.cse.msu.edu/biometrics/Publications/Signature/KrawczykJain_OnlineSignVo ice_AVBPA05.pdf Mogli, G. (2011). The roll of biometrics in healthcare privacy and security management system. Sri Lanka Journal of Bio-Medical Informatics 2011;2(4):156-165. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.4038/sljbmi.v2i4.2245 Read More