Authentication and authorization to the HealthConnect platform is handled by the accounts service. It is responsible for the registration of new accounts and the management of existing accounts. Every account is registered in a workspace, which is also stored and maintained here. A workspace is an isolated container where a group of accounts share data and interact. This matches the well-know security concept of tenant.
Users and systems can authenticate against accounts using several mechanisms, of which the most important and most widely used today is eHealth STS tokens. Other mechanisms are supported but typically come into picture after technical discussion with HealthConnect RnD. The result of a successful authentication is the issuing of an HealthConnect token.
Medical verification
Accounts support the automatic registration of workspaces and accounts in a workspace. Given a valid client ID and secret, anyone can perform such a registration. To avoid unwanted registrations from using the HealthConnect platform, we require every workspace to provide a proof of medical relevance. This proof is derived from the fact that one or more participants in the workspace have a valid medical profile. Accounts and workspaces remain active for as long as this requirement is met.
Types of workspaces
The medical verification helps define two types of accounts and two types of workspaces. One of each with medical verification and one without.
The workspace without medical verification is called a loose collaboration. Validation of medical relevance is based on the accounts in that collaboration.
Verified collaborations are workspaces with a medical relevance backed by an authentic source and strongly authenticated.