Abstract:
The subject matter disclosed herein includes distributed systems for secure storage and retrieval of encrypted biological specimen data. According to one embodiment, the system may comprise a submission device client operable to send, to a patient record server device, a patient record; and receive, from the patient record server device, a confirmation of receipt of the patient record. The system may further comprise a patient record server device comprising a first processor and second memory, a second communications interface associated with the first processor and second memory and operable to receive, from the submission device client, the patient record; send, to the submission device client, the confirmation of receipt of the patient record; receive, from a member device client, patient profile information; determine search results based on the patient profile information; and send, to the member device client, information indicating the search results. They system may yet further comprise a member device client operable to send, to the patient record server device, the patient profile information; receive, from the patient record server device, the information indicating the search results based on the patient profile information; and receive the search results based on the information indicating the search results.

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION 
       [0001]    This application is a continuation of International Patent Application Serial No. PCT/US16/62718, filed Nov. 18, 2016, titled Distributed Systems for Secure Storage and Retrieval of Encrypted Biological Specimen Data, which claims the benefit of priority of U.S. provisional patent application No. 62/256,759 titled “BitSpecimen: A Secure Digital Encrypted Database Of Information About Specimens And Data Collected During The Course Of Clinical Trials, Research Studies, Patient Registries And Institutional And National Biobanks” filed on Nov. 18, 2015, which applications and their contents are incorporated herein by reference. 
     
    
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     Field of the Invention 
       [0002]    The present invention relates to distributed systems for the storage and retrieval of encrypted biological specimen data. More specifically, it relates to a system employing blockchains in a secure peer-to-peer (P2P) networks for the storage and retrieval of encrypted data relating to biological specimens and encrypted data associated with the biological specimens. 
       Description of Related Art 
       [0003]    Privacy and trust in healthcare data is of particular concern for patients, medical facilities, governments and pharmaceutical companies. In the course of clinical trials specimens are collected and data about specimens is also created as the results of analyses performed on the specimen and the patient. These highly annotated specimens are an extremely valuable resource for precision medicine, yet they are often locked away (both physically and logically) and rarely used beyond their original use. Often, privacy concerns from the patients, the medical and legal community, pharmaceutical companies, and other parties results in patients opting out of trials, limiting the use of their data and other unused data and specimens of high value. In addition, the rich data from these specimens is also locked away in siloed pharmaceutical company databases and electronic medical systems, which precludes analysis of this data through modern data analysis techniques such as data mining or crowdsourcing. 
         [0004]    Bitcoin is an on-line cryptographic based, decentralized currency network that employs a database technology known as blockchain. Blockchain technology is the backbone of the bitcoin network and provides a tamper-proof data structure, providing a shared public ledger open to all users with access to the bitcoin network. 
         [0005]    A blockchain is a distributed database that is secured by complex cryptography and is publically viewable, in a P2P network. Any type of data may be stored semi-publically in a blockchain. Data stored in a blockchain is signed by the user uploading the data into the blockchain. Anyone with access to the blockchain may verify that data has been uploaded by a certain user, but only the user who uploaded the data owns a private key that grants access to the data. Thus, the blockchain behaves like a database with a public header—some information is available publicly, but a specific key is required to obtain additional data from the blockchain. 
         [0006]    The benefits of a blockchain are that it can store any type of data and keep it highly secure through a combination of encryption and private key access, but also provide limited public access to the data. These benefits make blockchains an ideal solution for storing highly sensitive data that must be shared. 
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0007]    The present invention employs blockchain technology in the storage of data about a biological specimen, the subject from which the specimen was obtained, healthcare data concerning the subject, and results of the analysis of the specimen, including genomic information. In embodiments of the present invention, blockchains may reside in a P2P network of computers (the exchange), managed and setup by a distributed autonomous organization (DAO). The DAO may serve all the members since the members provide value to the overall DAO by virtue of their work (e.g., adding information to their blockchain, or allowing the blockchain to be inspected and the data utilized for wider analyse). 
         [0008]    In certain embodiments of the present invention, when a new clinical trial starts or a member wishes to provide biological specimens, the P2P network may pre-mine to create a set of empty or very short blockchain. When a patient enrolls in the trial, the empty blockchain associated with the patient may reside in the patient&#39;s individual wallet, which may act as a patient&#39;s individual biobank. As the clinical trial proceeds and the patient consents to specimen collection and analysis of such specimens, a transaction may be added to the patient&#39;s blockchain for each specimen collected or analysis performed. Such transactions may secured with the patient&#39;s private key. As more transactions and data are added to the blockchain, it becomes more complex, and those without a private key must expend additional computational resources to unlock the blockchain. 
         [0009]    Opening up a blockchain and either adding to it, or reading it requires mining of the blockchains. When a patient wants to make his blockchain available for use by other members of the blockchain network, the patient may broadcast the fact that data is available. For example, the patient may broadcast that he is a certain ethnicity, is on certain medications, has samples banked physically, or had a single-nucleotide polymorphism analysis done to all the members of the blockchain network. 
         [0010]    The broadcast of the patient may be picked up by the blockchain miners—individuals within the network who have an interest in obtaining that data. Miners may compete to unlock the blockchain and inspect the ledger and use the data held within it without the private key by solving the cryptographic puzzle associated with the blockchain using computational resources. The miner who wins may be rewarded with access to the data. This record of access may be appended to the patient&#39;s blockchain as a new block, which increases the security of the blockchain and the difficulty of obtaining access to it. 
         [0011]    Each block in a blockchain may contain multiple pieces of data. For example, during a clinical trial, multiple transactions and data could be loaded into a single block, thereby reducing the computational mining cost to unlock the block chain or add to it. During the trial, only the trial sponsor could be given access to the blockchain. At the conclusion of the trial the availability of the blockchain could be broadcast to the network members, allowing any member prepared to invest the computational power to unlock it. In some embodiments, members may simply pay a monetary fee proportional to the computing time necessary to unlock a blockchain to gain access to it. 
         [0012]    Almost any data about the patient or specimen may be added to the blockchain. For example, specimen identifiers, informed consent data, medical record, specimen chain of custody, what has happened to the specimen, results of analyses, etc. may all be added to a blockchain. Since blocks are added to a blockchain in a linear manner, the blockchain provides an overall transaction history which can be inspected. For example, if the specimen was analyzed before consent was given, or consent was revoked prior to the analysis, such legal or ethical problems would be evidenced in the sequence of the blockchain. In yet another example, if the physical specimen is to be used for analysis, the specimen owner may give permission to transfer the physical specimen to a third party, and a record of that transaction may be stored in the specimen&#39;s blockchain. 
         [0013]    In some embodiments of present invention, a distributed system for secure storage and retrieval of encrypted biological specimen data may comprise a submission device client operable to send, to a patient record server device, a patient record; and receive, from the patient record server device, a confirmation of receipt of the patient record. The system may further comprise a patient record server device comprising a first processor and first memory, the patient record device operable to receive, from the submission device client, the patient record; send, to the submission device client, the confirmation of receipt of the patient record; receive, from a member device client, patient profile information; determine search results based on the patient profile information; and send, to the member device client, information indicating the search results. They system may yet further comprise a member device client operable to send, to the patient record server device, the patient profile information; receive, from the patient record server device, the information indicating the search results based on the patient profile information; and receive the search results based on the information indicating the search results. 
         [0014]    In yet other embodiments of the present invention, the system may further comprise a submission device comprising a second processor and second memory, the submission device operable to execute the submission device client. The system may further comprise a member device comprising a third processor and a third memory, the memory device operable to execute the member device client. 
         [0015]    In yet other embodiments of the present invention, the submission device client of the system may be further operable to receive a first confirmation of a patient record provider credit from the patient record server device. The patient record server device may be further operable to store the patient record provider credit in a next patient blockchain, send the first confirmation of the patient record provider credit to the submission device client, store a member device client debit in the next patient blockchain, send a second confirmation of the member device client debit to the member device client, and store an operator credit in the next patient blockchain. The member device client may be further operable to receive the second confirmation of the member device client debit from the patient record server device. 
         [0016]    In yet other embodiments of the present invention, the patient record server device of the system may be further operable to receive, from the member device client, mined information; store the mined information in a next member blockchain; and send, to the member device client, a confirmation of storage of the mined information. The member device client may be further operable to mine the search results to extract mined information; send, to the patient record server, the mined information; and receive, from the patient record server, confirmation of the storage of the mined information. 
         [0017]    In yet other embodiments of the present invention, the patient record server device of the system may be further operable to assign an access fee to the patient record, the patient record access fee being proportional to the amount of information stored in the patient record. 
         [0018]    In yet other embodiments of the present invention, the submission device client of the system, in order to send the patient record, may be further operable to receive first patient record information input based on a clinical trial, send the first patient record information to the patient record server device, receive second patient record information input based on a clinical trial, and send the second patient record information to the patient record server device. The patient record server device, in order to receive the patient record, may be further operable to receive the first patient record information from the submission device client; store the first patient record information in a next blockchain; increase, in response to storing the first patient record information, the access fee associated with the patient record; receive the second patient record from the submission device client; store the second record information in the next blockchain; and increase, in response to storing the second patient record information, the access fee associated with the patient record. 
         [0019]    In yet other embodiments of the present invention, the patient record server device of the system, in order to facilitate a clinical trial, may be further operable to receive a plurality of clinical trial patient records from a plurality of submission device clients corresponding to a plurality of clinical trial patients; group the plurality of clinical trial patient records to form a clinical trial group of patient records; restrict access, to the plurality of clinical trial patient records, to all the member device clients except for member device clients identified as clinical trial sponsor member device clients; receive information signaling the end of clinical trial; and providing access to the clinical trial patient records to other member device clients. 
         [0020]    In some embodiments of the present invention, a method of securely storing and retrieving encrypted biological specimen data may comprise receiving a patient record from a submission device client, sending a confirmation of receipt of the patient record to the submission device client, receiving patient profile information from a member device client, determining search results based on the patient profile information, and sending information indicating the search results to the member device client. 
         [0021]    In yet other embodiments of the present invention, the method may further comprise storing a patient record provider credit in a next patient blockchain, sending a first confirmation of the patient record provider credit to the submission device client, storing a member device client debit in the next patient blockchain, sending a second confirmation of the member device client debit to the member device client, and storing an operator credit in the next patient blockchain. 
         [0022]    In yet other embodiments of the present invention, the method may further comprise receiving mined information from the member device client, storing the mined information in a next member blockchain, and sending a confirmation of storage of the mined information to the member device client. 
         [0023]    In yet other embodiments of the present invention, the method may further comprise assigning an access fee to the patient record, the patient record access fee being proportional to the amount of information stored in the patient record. 
         [0024]    In yet other embodiments of the present invention, the method may further comprise receiving first patient record information from the submission device client; storing the first patient record information in a next blockchain; increasing, in response to storing the first patient record information, the access fee associated with the patient record; receiving second patient record from the submission device client; storing the second record information in the next blockchain; and increasing, in response to storing the second patient record information, the access fee associated with the patient record. 
         [0025]    In yet other embodiments of the present invention, receiving a plurality of clinical trial patient records from a plurality of submission device clients corresponding to a plurality of clinical trial patients; grouping the plurality of clinical trial patient records to form a clinical trial group of patient records; restricting access, to the plurality of clinical trial patient records, to all the member device clients except for member device clients identified as clinical trial sponsor member device clients; receiving information signaling the end of clinical trials; and providing access to the clinical trial patient records to other member device clients. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0026]      FIG. 1  is an overview system diagram illustrating an exemplary distributed system for securely storing and retrieving encrypted biological specimen data. 
           [0027]      FIG. 2A  is a network diagram illustrating example components and functions of a distributed system for securely storing and retrieving encrypted biological specimen data according to some embodiments of the present invention. 
           [0028]      FIG. 2B  is a network diagram illustrating additional example components and functions of a distributed system for securely storing and retrieving encrypted biological specimen data. 
           [0029]      FIG. 3  is a block diagram of the hardware components comprising a submission device according to some embodiments of the present invention. 
           [0030]      FIG. 4  is a block diagram of the hardware components comprising a member device according to some embodiments of the present invention. 
           [0031]      FIG. 5  is a block diagram of the hardware components comprising a patient record server according to some embodiments of the present invention. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
       [0032]    The present disclosure is described with specificity to meet statutory requirements. However, the description itself is not intended to limit the scope of this patent. Rather, the inventors have contemplated that the claimed subject matter might also be embodied in other ways, to include different steps or elements similar to the ones described in this document, in conjunction with other present or future technologies. Moreover, although the term “step” may be used herein to connote different aspects of methods employed, the term should not be interpreted as implying any particular order among or between various steps herein disclosed unless and except when the order of individual steps is explicitly described. 
         [0033]    As referred to herein, the term “computing device” should be broadly construed. In some embodiments, both the submission device  30  and member device  50  may be considered computing devices. It can include any type of mobile device, for example, a smart phone, a cell phone, a pager, a personal digital assistant (PDA, e.g., with GPRS NIC), a mobile computer with a cellular radio, or the like. A typical mobile device is a wireless data access-enabled device (e.g., an iPHONE® smart phone, a BLACKBERRY® smart phone, a NEXUS ONE™ smart phone, an iPAD™ device, or the like) that is capable of sending and receiving data in a wireless manner using protocols like the Internet Protocol, or IP, and the wireless application protocol, or WAP. This allows users to access information via wireless devices, such as smart phones, mobile phones, pagers, two-way radios, communicators, and the like. Wireless data access is supported by many wireless networks, including, but not limited to, CDPD, CDMA, GSM, PDC, PHS, TDMA, FLEX, ReFLEX, iDEN, TETRA, DECT, DataTAC, Mobitex, EDGE and other 2G, 3G, 4G and LTE technologies, and it operates with many handheld device operating systems, such as PalmOS, EPOC, Windows CE, FLEXOS, OS/9, JavaOS, iOS and Android. Typically, these devices use graphical displays and can access the Internet (or other communications network) on so-called mini- or micro-browsers, which are web browsers with small file sizes that can accommodate the reduced memory constraints of wireless networks. In a representative embodiment, the mobile device is a cellular telephone or smart phone that operates over GPRS (General Packet Radio Services), which is a data technology for GSM networks. In addition to a conventional voice communication, a given mobile device can communicate with another such device via many different types of message transfer techniques, including SMS (short message service), enhanced SMS (EMS), multi-media message (MMS), email WAP, paging, or other known or later-developed wireless data formats. Although many of the examples provided herein are implemented on a mobile device, the examples may similarly be implemented on any suitable “computing device”. 
         [0034]    Throughout this specification, like reference numbers signify the same elements throughout the description of the figures. 
         [0035]    When elements are referred to as being “connected” or “coupled,” the elements can be directly connected or coupled together or one or more intervening elements may also be present. In contrast, when elements are referred to as being “directly connected” or “directly coupled,” there are no intervening elements present. 
         [0036]    The subject matter may be embodied as devices, systems, methods, and/or computer program products. Accordingly, some or all of the subject matter may be embodied in hardware and/or in software (including firmware, resident software, micro-code, state machines, gate arrays, etc.) Furthermore, the subject matter may take the form of a computer program product on a computer-usable or computer-readable storage medium having computer-usable or computer-readable program code embodied in the medium for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system. In the context of this document, a computer-usable or computer-readable medium may be any medium that can contain, store, communicate, propagate, or transport the program for use by or in connection with the instruction execution system, apparatus, or device. 
         [0037]    The computer-usable or computer-readable medium may be for example, but not limited to, an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, device, or propagation medium. By way of example, and not limitation, computer-readable media may comprise computer storage media and communication media. 
         [0038]    Computer storage media includes volatile and nonvolatile, removable and non-removable media implemented in any method or technology for storage of information such as computer-readable instructions, data structures, program modules, or other data. Computer storage media includes, but is not limited to, RAM, ROM, EEPROM, flash memory or other memory technology, CD-ROM, digital versatile disks (DVD) or other optical storage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium which can be used to store the desired information and may be accessed by an instruction execution system. Note that the computer-usable or computer-readable medium can be paper or other suitable medium upon which the program is printed, as the program can be electronically captured via, for instance, optical scanning of the paper or other suitable medium, then compiled, interpreted, of otherwise processed in a suitable manner, if necessary, and then stored in a computer memory. 
         [0039]    Communication media typically embodies computer-readable instructions, data structures, program modules or other data in a modulated data signal such as a carrier wave or other transport mechanism and includes any information delivery media. The term “modulated data signal” can be defined as a signal that has one or more of its characteristics set or changed in such a manner as to encode information in the signal. By way of example, and not limitation, communication media includes wired media such as a wired network or direct-wired connection, and wireless media such as acoustic, RF, infrared and other wireless media. Combinations of any of the above-mentioned should also be included within the scope of computer-readable media. 
         [0040]    When the subject matter is embodied in the general context of computer-executable instructions, the embodiment may comprise program modules, executed by one or more systems, computers, or other devices. Generally, program modules include routines, programs, objects, components, data structures, and the like, that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. Typically, the functionality of the program modules may be combined or distributed as desired in various embodiments. 
         [0041]    Operating environments in which embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented are also well-known. In a representative embodiment, a computing, such as a mobile device, is connectable to a transmission functionality that varies depending on implementation. Thus, for example, where the operating environment is a wide area wireless network (e.g., a 2.5G network, a 3G network, or a 4G network), the transmission functionality comprises one or more components such as a mobile switching center (MSC) (an enhanced ISDN switch that is responsible for call handling of mobile subscribers), a visitor location register (VLR) (an intelligent database that stores on a temporary basis data required to handle calls set up or received by mobile devices registered with the VLR), a home location register (HLR) (an intelligent database responsible for management of each subscriber&#39;s records), one or more base stations (which provide radio coverage with a cell), a base station controller (BSC) (a switch that acts as a local concentrator of traffic and provides local switching to effect handover between base stations), and a packet control unit (PCU) (a device that separates data traffic coming from a mobile device). The HLR also controls certain services associated with incoming calls. Of course, the present disclosure may be implemented in other and next-generation mobile networks and devices as well. The mobile device is the physical equipment used by the end user, typically a subscriber to the wireless network. Typically, a mobile device is a 2.5G-compliant device, 3G-compliant device, or a 4G-compliant device) that includes a subscriber identity module (SIM), which is a smart card that carries subscriber-specific information, mobile equipment (e.g., radio and associated signal processing devices), a user interface (or a man-machine interface (MMI), and one or more interfaces to external devices (e.g., computers, PDAs, and the like). The mobile device may also include a memory or data store. The presently disclosed subject matter is now described in more detail. 
         [0042]    Referring now to  FIG. 1 , in some embodiments of the present invention, a distributed system for storing and retrieving encrypted biological specimen data may be comprised of a plurality of submission devices  30 , a plurality of member devices  50 , and a plurality of patient record server devices  70 . The submission devices  30  may represent the devices used to perform submission of the patient records. The member devices  50  may represent the devices used by members (e.g., pharmaceutical companies, medical research companies, academic organizations, etc.) to access the patient records. The patient record servers  70  may represent the devices that together host the patient records in a secure and distributed manner using blockchain technology. 
         [0043]    The submission device  30  may be comprised of a control system  32 , UI Function  34 , communication function  36 , and a submission function  38 . The private key may be stored in the key repository  40 , along with the respective patient record  42  for the submission device  30 . The UI function may provide the user interface controls allowing a user of the system to interact with the submission device  30 . The communication function  36  may work with the communication interfaces  308  to provide communications for the submission device  30 . The submission function  38  may send the patient record collected at the submission device  30  to the patient record servers  70 . 
         [0044]    The member device  50  may be comprised of a control system  52 , UI Function  54 , communication function  56 , and an access function  58 . The private key may be stored in the key repository  60 , along with the respective patient records  62  for the member device  50 . The UI function  54  may provide the user interface controls allowing a user of the system to interact with the member device  50 . The communication function  56  may work with the communication interfaces  408  to provide communications for the member device  50 . The submission function  58  may receive the patient records collected at the patient record servers  70 . 
         [0045]    The patient record servers  70  may be comprised of a control system  72 , UI Function  74 , communication function  76 , and an access function  78 . The owner repository  80  may store administrative information for the patient record servers  70 . The member repository  82  may store information about the member devices  50  accessing the patient record servers  70 . The patient record repository  84  may store the patient record information  42  received from the submission devices  30 . The private and public keys may be stored at in the key repository  60 , along with the respective patient records  62  for the member device  50 . The record intake function  74  may operate to receive the patent records  42  from the submission device  30 . The record access function  76  may operate to receive request for and send data in response to access to patient records  42  stored in the patient record repository  84 . The communication function  77  may work with the communication interfaces  508  to provide communications for the patient record server  70 . The access key generation function  78  may provide access keys to the submission devices  30  and member devices  50 . 
         [0046]    Those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the network  20  is not limited by the implementations listed above. More specifically, the network  20  may be any type of network  20  suitable to allow interaction between the submission devices  30 , member devices  50 , and the patient record servers  70 . For example, the network  20  may be a wired network, a wireless network, or any combination thereof. Further, the network  20  may include a distributed computing network, an intranet, a local-area network (LAN) and/or a wide-area network (WAN), or any combination thereof. 
         [0047]      FIG. 2  depicts the network traffic on a distributed system for storing and retrieving encrypted biological specimen data according to at least one embodiment of the present invention. The submission device  30  may request  202  and receive keys  204  from the patient record servers  70 . Patient data may be received  206  at the submission device  30  and sent  208  to the patient record servers  70 . The patient record servers  70  may work together to add the patient records to the patient record repository  804  as part of the next blockchain  212 . A confirmation of the recordation may be provided to the submission device  30 . A member device  50  may receive information indicating profiles to be matched  214 . The member device  50  may request access to patient data for patients matching the profile  216 , and access keys may be sent to the member device  50  enabling access. Data may be requested by the member device  50  from the patient record servers  70 . Payment from the member to the infrastructure operator(s) may be authorized  220 . The requested data may be received  222  at the member device  50 . The member device  50  may then proceed to mine the data  224 . The member&#39;s account may then be debited  226  for access to the data and proof of the transaction may be recorded in the next blockchain  228 . Confirmation of the member debit may be received  229  at the member device  50 . The patient&#39;s account may be credited  230  for providing the data and proof of the transaction may be recorded in the next blockchain  232 . Confirmation of the patient credit may be received  233  at the submission device  30 . The infrastructure provider&#39;s account may be credited  234  for enabling the patient/member transaction and proof of the transaction may be recorded in the next blockchain  236 . Confirmation of the provider credit may be received  237  at the submission device  30 . The member device  50  may request storage of the mined results at the patient record servers  70 . Confirmation of the storage may be received  242  at the member device  50 . 
         [0048]    Referring now to  FIG. 3 , a block diagram of a submission device  30  according to at least one embodiment of the present invention is shown. As illustrated, the submission device  30  includes a controller  304  connected to memory  306 , one or more communications interfaces  308 , one or more user interface components  310 , one or more storage devices  312 , and a location module  314  by a bus  302  or similar mechanism. The controller  304  is a microprocessor, digital ASIC, FPGA, or the like. In general, the submission device  30  includes a control system  32  having associated memory  306 . In this embodiment, the controller  304  is a microprocessor, and the UI function  34 , communications function  36 , and submission function  38  are implemented in software and stored in the memory  306  for execution by the controller  304 . However, the present disclosure is not limited thereto. The aforementioned functions and engine may be implemented in software, hardware, or a combination thereof. The submission device  30  also includes a communication interface  308  enabling the submission device  30  to connect to the network  20 . The one or more user interface components  310  include, for example, a touchscreen, a display, one or more user input components (e.g., a keypad), a speaker, or the like, or any combination thereof. The storage device(s)  312  is a non-volatile memory. In this embodiment, the location module  314  is a hardware component, such as a GPS receiver. However, the present invention is not limited thereto. 
         [0049]      FIG. 4  is a block diagram of a member device  50  according to one embodiment of the present disclosure. As illustrated, the member device  50  includes a controller  404  connected to memory  406 , one or more communications interfaces  408 , one or more user interface components  410 , one or more storage devices  412  by a bus  402  or similar mechanism. The controller  404  is a microprocessor, digital ASIC, FPGA, or the like. In general, the member device  50  includes a control system  52  having associated memory  406 . In this embodiment, the controller  404  is a microprocessor, and the and the UI function  54 , communications function  56 , and access function  58  are implemented in software and stored in the memory  406  for execution by the controller  404 . However, the present disclosure is not limited thereto. The aforementioned functions may be implemented in software, hardware, or a combination thereof. The member device  50  also includes a communication interface  408  enabling the reference member device  50  to connect to the network  20 . The one or more user interface components  410  include, for example, a touchscreen, a display, one or more user input components (e.g., a keypad), a speaker, or the like, or any combination thereof. The storage device(s)  412  is a non-volatile memory. 
         [0050]      FIG. 5  is a block diagram of a comparison server device  70  according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. As illustrated, comparison server device  70  includes a controller  504  connected to a memory  506 , one or more secondary storage devices  512 , and one or more communications interfaces  508  by a bus  502  or similar mechanism. The controller  504  is a microprocessor, digital Application Specific Integrated Circuit ASIC, Field Programmable Gate Array FPGA, or the like. In general, the comparison server device  70  includes a control system  72  having associated memory  506 . In this embodiment, the controller  504  is a microprocessor, and the record intake function  74 , record access function  76 , and access key generation  78  is implemented in software and stored in the memory  506  for execution by the controller  504 . However, the present disclosure is not limited thereto. The aforementioned engine may be implemented in software, hardware, or a combination thereof. Further, the owner repository  80 , member repository  82 , and patient record repository  84  may be stored in the one or more secondary storage devices  512 . The secondary storage devices  512  are digital data storage devices such as, for example, one or more hard disk drives. The comparison server device  70  also includes a communication interface  508  enabling the comparison server device  70  to connect to the network  20 . 
         [0051]    Those skilled in the art will recognize improvements and modifications to the embodiments of the present disclosure. All such improvements and modifications are considered within the scope of the concepts disclosed herein and the claims that follow.