A cryptographic approach for monitoring patients with mild cognitive impairment and dementia

Abstract

Modern technological advances have enabled us to improve the quality of our lives, increasing the life expectancy as well, in almost every developed country. Therefore, a big part of the population, has reached older age. As a result, mild cognitive impairment and several types of dementia, are becoming a serious problem. Apart from medical care solutions, others are proposing modern technology based solutions. Patients are using geolocation devices, allowing tracing in case they have an accident, get lost or simply disoriented. Nevertheless, in the first stages cognitive impairment is not so dangerous, so patients have a high degree of autonomy. Forcing them to carry such devices, surely invades their privacy. This work proposes a novel, more privacy-aware method for sharing patient's information, using cryptographic primitives.