with the only ongoing expense being a toll free telephone number. ... The system generates a unique 'access control number' (ACN) and a 'voice attestation ...
A Novel Voice Signature Method for Electronic Death Registration Systems Michael A. Hogarth, Sanket Bansal, Abhijhat Upadhyay, Kevin Kunkel, Glenna Gobar UC Davis School of Medicine, Davis, CA Electronic signature of documents is frequently a challenging problem in the medical domain. This is particularly an issue with death certificates which require timely signatures. In the process of developing an electronic death registration system, we devised a novel remote signature method involving an off-the-shelf interactive voice response system (IVRS). This paper describes this system and its motivations. BACKGROUND The need for remote signature of death certificates by physicians is a pressing matter given the expense and time involved in pursuing a physical signature from a certifying doctor. It has been estimated that in California, funeral directors spend approximately $100 per death certificate if they must track down a physician for signature. This is a common occurrence and results in considerable expense for the industry given there are over 250,000 annual deaths in California. During the development of an electronic death registration system for California, we were confronted with the need to develop a mechanism for remote signature by physicians. Although digital certificates and public key infrastructures are an option, they are often inconvenient for mobile physicians who must carry their private key with them in some fashion. The digital certificate method typically also requires access to a computer with network connections. Furthermore, the digital certificate method can be compromised by the user who can give the key to a third party such as office staff. We devised a simple voice signature method that captures utterances from physicians using a commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) interactive voice response system. The method has been deemed a legal signature for death certificates in California and is described below. Initial system cost was ~$35,000 with the only ongoing expense being a toll free telephone number. VOICE SIGNATURE METHOD The voice method begins with the invocation of the voice signature request by a funeral director using the EDRS system. The system generates a unique ‘access control number’ (ACN) and a ‘voice attestation number’ (VAN) for the death certificate. The ACN is the equivalent to a time limited PIN number. These are generated within a PDF file in real-time, and along with a PDF copy of the death certificate, are FAXed to the physician’s office by the EDRS system itself – the funeral director does not see these documents. The form instructs the physician to call the voice server using a toll free number and say the access control number. If the ACN is valid, the system asks the physician to then say the voice attestation number following a tone. This utterance is recorded in real time and played back to the physician for verification. Once the utterance has been verified by the physician caller, the system stores the utterance in a remote database and the death certificate has been signed by voice. It is important to note this system is not an authentication system and does not require enrollment of physicians. With over 81,000 physicians in California and approximately 30,000 physicians attesting at least one death certificate annually, the cost of managing the enrollment and accounts would be considerable. Rather, the goal is to make the signature process that is equivalent in security to the manual signature, yet removes the need to obtain a physical signature. The voice signature is also non-repudiatable as voice analysis can be used to compare it with a known sample from the physician if required in court. CONCLUSIONS The model devised has the following characteristics: (1) it is low cost and does not require any investment in equipment or software by the physician – it is immediately usable, (2) the method leverages technology (telephony) that is ubiquitous and very familiar to all physicians, (3) the method is inexpensive to manage and scalable given physicians are not required to enroll prior to using the system, (4) and the system provides non-repudiation through the storage of a biometric in the recorded voice. We believe this system solves one of the most vexing problems facing electronic death registration systems today – namely, providing a simple and inexpensive method for remote attestation of the causes of death by the physician. We also believe this simple method can be employed in a wide array of scenarios where a person’s signature is required for simple forms.
AMIA 2005 Symposium Proceedings Page - 981
