QR Code Based Patient Medical Health Records Transmission: Zimbabwean Case

In Zimbabwe the health care delivery system is hierarchical and patient transfer from the lower level to the next higher level health care facility involves patients carrying their physical medical record card. A medical record card holds information pertaining to the patient’s medical history, pre-existing allergies, medical health conditions, prescribed medication the patient is currently taking among other details. Recording such patient information on a medical health card renders it susceptible to tempering, loss, and misinterpretation as well as susceptible to breaches in confidentiality. In this paper, we propose the application of Quick Response (QR) codes to secure and transmit this sensitive patient information from one level of the health care delivery system to another. Other security methods such as steganography could be used, but in this paper we propose the use of QR codes owing to the high proliferation of mobile phones in the country, high storage capacity, flexibility, ease of use and their capability to maintain data integrity as well as storage of data in any format.