Privacy concerns over health information, medical records, and electronic health records (EHRs) are increasing and drawing significant attention. This trend reflects the exponential growth of technology, in particular health information technology (HIT) and eHealth systems around the globe. Despite these concerns, research has suggested that paper-based medical records are more vulnerable and potentially subject to more privacy breaches [1] compared to EHR systems such as eHealth distributed networks and standalone systems.

The contribution made by this paper to these privacy concerns over eHealth networks is timely and challenging. Privacy-preserving authentication among users, in particular physicians and patients, in an eHealth system is a positive step toward managing rapidly growing HIT and distributed healthcare services. The authors of this paper tackle the challenging task of distributed authentications among verifiable identities and privacy concerns. It is admirable that different privacy levels, or progressive privacy levels, are addressed technically, to some extent, with experimental evidence. While the computational cost of this experiment is challenging, it is important to address patient-centric privacy demands with simultaneous solutions and human behaviors. A sociotechnical approach to eHealth scenarios might be an added advantage for future research.

Consequently, this research paper strengthens patient empowerment in HIT, EHR, and eHealth systems. It further opens debate on information accountability in both HIT and eHealth systems. This emerging research problem requires collaborative research efforts. In this paper, Guo et al. unlock future research trials and challenges.