Programmable Encryption for Patient Data

Seald Healthcare eliminates plaintext PHI across healthcare workflows by encrypting patient data at the record level through our API and SDK. PHI remains encrypted wherever it moves or is stored, including across vendors, cloud environments, and AI systems. It decrypts only at authorized read time on an authorized device. Access remains policy-governed and revocable in real time, even after sharing.

patient_records.db
Field
Value
Status
Patient NameSarah Mitchell⚠ Open
DOB03/15/1987⚠ Open
SSN482-91-3047⚠ Open
MRNMRN-20948571⚠ Open
DiagnosisType 2 Diabetes Mellitus⚠ Open
MedicationMetformin 500mg BID⚠ Open
AllergiesPenicillin, Sulfa⚠ Open
ProviderDr. James Carter, MD⚠ Open
Insurance IDBC-8834921-A⚠ Open
Last Visit01/22/2026⚠ Open
Plaintext PHI detected, data exposed

The Problem

Once Your Patient Data Leaves Your Network, You Lose Control

Healthcare organizations share PHI across a growing network of vendors, cloud environments, and AI systems. Data is encrypted in transit, but when it reaches third-party systems it is decrypted, indexed, and processed in plaintext. Your vendor’s breach is not just your vendor’s problem. Once patient data leaves your network, a breach at a third party can expose your patients, your organization, and your reputation.

1B+

Records exposed across 7,400+ breaches since 2009

$7.42M

Average healthcare breach cost, highest of any industry 14 years running

80%+

Of stolen patient records taken from third-party vendors

380K+

Patient records breached every day in 2025

The Solution

Zero-Knowledge Record-Level Security

Most security tools protect systems. Seald Healthcare protects the data itself with record-level encryption and access controls that remain attached wherever it moves or is stored. We manage the key infrastructure through a zero-knowledge architecture. Plaintext is produced only for an authorized user, device, service, or workflow.

End-to-End Encryption

PHI is encrypted on the sender's device and only decrypted by authorized recipients. No intermediary, including Seald Healthcare, can access plaintext data.

Persistent Access Policies

Control who can access data, from which devices, and during which time windows. Revoke or update permissions at any time, even after data has been shared.

Tamper-Evident Audit Logs

Every access, denial, and policy change is logged with cryptographic integrity. Logs cannot be altered without detection.

Developer-First Integration

Seamlessly add encryption to your existing applications or workflows. No changes to how you currently operate are required.

Automatic Key Management

Encryption keys are issued, rotated, rewrapped, and revoked automatically. No cryptography expertise is needed from your team.

Group and Role-Based Access

Assign permissions to care teams, departments, or roles. Access updates automatically as group membership changes.

HIPAA Safe Harbor

A Breach of Properly Encrypted PHI Is Not a Reportable Breach Per HHS

If protected health information is lost, stolen, or accessed by an unauthorized party, properly encrypted data remains unreadable and unusable. HHS guidance is explicit: encrypted PHI does not trigger breach notification requirements. That means a security incident does not automatically become a reportable breach. The result can be reduced breach liability, lower cyber insurance costs, and a dramatically different outcome for your organization.

“Protected health information (PHI) is rendered unusable, unreadable, or indecipherable to unauthorized individuals if one or more of the following applies: electronic PHI has been encrypted as specified in the HIPAA Security Rule… such encryption renders the breach notification provisions of the HITECH Act inapplicable.”
— HHS Guidance Specifying the Technologies and Methodologies for Securing PHI · 45 CFR § 164.402

No Public Disclosure

No 60-day notification clock, no HHS portal listing, no press release.

Reduced OCR Exposure

Demonstrated safeguards reduce regulatory and enforcement exposure.

Lower Insurance Premiums

Record-level encryption may qualify for carrier premium credits.

Meet Marlow, Your Contract Enforcer

Enforce Your Contracts
at the Record-Level
with Marlow

Marlow enforces encryption and policy-governed access controls at the record level by analyzing your contracts, translating them into policies, and staging actions for your approval, including policy updates, key rotations, access changes, and session revocations. It verifies shared data through cryptographic signing, monitors decryption activity in real time, and provides visibility across vendors, cloud environments, and AI systems.

app.sealdhealthcare.com / policy-studio

Policy Studio powered by Marlow

Write access policies in plain English, Marlow translates to enforceable rules

Write policy in plain English

effectsubjectresourceconditions

Validated policy

Ready to generate

Write your policy in plain English and click “Generate & Validate” to see the translated rules.

“Only allow clinical staff to decrypt patient records during office hours”

“Revoke vendor access to all PHI 24 hours after contract termination”

“Restrict billing data to finance team members on managed devices with MFA enabled”

How It Works

Persistent Security
Across Every System
and Workflow

Patient data moves across vendors, labs, billing platforms, and AI workflows every day. Seald Healthcare encrypts PHI at the source and ensures encryption and access policies follow the data wherever it goes, creating a unified, tamper-evident audit trail across every system and workflow.

Your EHR

Epic · Cerner · Athena

Your Vendors

RCM · Lab · Imaging · BAAs

AI Workflows

Analytics · Agentic AI

Seald · encryption + policy enforcement

Tamper-evident audit log

sha-256 chain · live
Epic-EHR → RCM-Vendor · read patient.mrn.874311 · allowed under BillingHoursPolicy
RCM-Vendor → AI-Risk-Pipeline · process claims_batch_mar26 · allowed
Unmanaged-device → AI-Risk-Pipeline · attempted decrypt · denied (DeviceTrustPolicy)Denied

Step 1 · Define Access Policies

Create policies that determine who can access patient data, under what conditions, and for how long. Configure permissions by role, team, device, or workflow.

Step 2 · Encrypt at the Source

PHI is encrypted the moment it is created. Encryption and access policies follow the data across vendors, billing platforms, labs, and AI workflows, ensuring patient data is never stored or shared in plaintext.

Step 3 · Maintain Persistent Control

Retain control over patient data even after it has been shared. Update or revoke access in real time and monitor activity through a unified, tamper-evident audit trail across every system and workflow.

New Resource

Compliance vs. Security in Healthcare

Healthcare does not have a compliance problem, it has a data security problem. Between 2009 and early 2026, more than 1 billion patient records have been exposed in reported healthcare data breaches. This white paper examines why HIPAA compliance does not equal security and how record-level encryption addresses a critical gap in how healthcare data is protected.

Tokenization vs. Encryption

Many healthcare solutions today rely on tokenization, replacing sensitive data with surrogate values while storing the original data elsewhere. This approach still depends on access to underlying plaintext data and introduces additional points of risk. Seald Healthcare uses true end-to-end encryption, ensuring PHI is never exposed in plaintext outside authorized environments and remains protected across systems, vendors, and workflows at all times.

Cloud Security Alone
Isn't Enough

Cloud providers like Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure operate under a shared responsibility model. They secure infrastructure, but you are responsible for protecting your data. Once PHI leaves your network, those protections no longer apply. Seald Healthcare adds a data security layer that encrypts PHI end-to-end, enforces access policies across organizations, and maintains control wherever data travels.

Why Now

Now is the Time for
Record-Level Security

Regulation is Catching Up

A recently proposed update to the HIPAA Security Rule, published in the Federal Register, would make encryption of ePHI mandatory by removing the longstanding addressable exception.

AI Breaks Perimeter Security

AI agents are autonomously accessing, processing, and transmitting PHI across organizational boundaries at machine speed. The data itself must be encrypted, with access control that persists wherever it travels.

Encryption Is About to Change Forever

Harvest now, decrypt later attacks are already underway. NIST has finalized post-quantum cryptography standards. Patient records do not expire. Seald Healthcare is post-quantum ready.