Why hospitals trust UCIP

UCIP was built specifically for South African healthcare. Every feature, every database field, every access control rule was designed with POPIA, HPCSA guidelines, and the National Health Act in mind.

We don't bolt security on after the fact. Patient data protection is foundational to the platform architecture. When your hospital connects to UCIP for inter-facility transfers, clinical handovers, or shared patient records, you can be confident that the data is handled with the care it deserves.

Data encryption — every layer, every field

We don't just encrypt the database. We apply field-level encryption to every piece of sensitive patient information, ensuring that even in the unlikely event of a database compromise, the data remains unreadable.

Patient identifiers

SA ID numbers, passport numbers, and medical aid details are encrypted with AES-256-GCM. Deterministic encryption enables lookups without exposing plaintext values.

Medical records

Allergies, medications, chronic conditions, and ISBAR clinical handover data are encrypted at the field level. Only authorised clinicians with valid sessions can decrypt.

Digital signatures

Clinician and patient signatures captured on the platform are encrypted at rest, ensuring non-repudiation while protecting biometric data.

Authentication secrets

Passwords are hashed with bcrypt. Two-factor authentication secrets and API keys are stored with application-level encryption, never in plaintext.

Access control — who sees what

Every data request passes through multiple layers of access control. We enforce the principle of least privilege at every level.

Organisation isolation

Multi-tenancy is enforced at the query level, not just the UI. Every database query is automatically scoped to the user's organisation. One hospital can never see another's data, even if they share the same platform.

Role-based access

Three distinct roles — admin, clinician, and paramedic — each with precisely defined permissions. Admins manage the organisation, clinicians access full clinical records, and paramedics see only what they need for active transfers.

Mandatory 2FA

Two-factor authentication is mandatory for admin and clinician roles. This ensures that even compromised credentials cannot provide access to sensitive clinical data.

Short-lived sessions

JWT access tokens expire after 15 minutes. Refresh tokens last 30 days but can be revoked instantly. The mobile app enforces PIN lockout after three failed attempts.

Complete audit trail

Every access to patient data creates an immutable audit log entry. These records cannot be edited or deleted, even by system administrators.

What we log

Who — user identity

What — action performed

Which — record affected

When — timestamp

Where — IP address

Changes — before/after

Audit logs are available for regulatory inspection at any time. Your hospital's compliance team can request a full audit report for any patient or time period.

Automated data retention

UCIP enforces legally compliant data retention periods automatically. You don't need to remember — the system handles it.

Retention periods

Adult patient records are retained for 6 years after the last interaction. Minor patient records are retained until the patient turns 21, in accordance with HPCSA guidelines and the National Health Act.

Anonymisation, not deletion

When the retention period expires, personal information is replaced with REDACTED. The clinical record structure is preserved for statistical and research purposes, but all identifying information is permanently removed.

Daily automated job

The data retention job runs daily. It cannot be bypassed, overridden, or disabled by any user, including administrators.

Breach detection and notification

If a security incident occurs, our system ensures that all legally required notifications happen within the prescribed timeframes.

SecurityIncident tracking

Every potential breach is logged as a SecurityIncident with severity classification, affected data categories, and estimated impact. A 72-hour countdown begins automatically.

Automatic admin alerts

Organisation administrators are notified immediately when an incident is created. No manual intervention is required to begin the response process.

Regulator notification

Pre-built email templates conforming to POPIA Section 22(3) requirements enable rapid notification to the Information Regulator. Data subject notification templates are also available.

Consent tracking

UCIP tracks three types of patient consent, each managed independently and revocable at any time.

Data processing Data sharing Research

Every consent record is timestamped, attributed to the person who captured it, and can be revoked. The API returns consent status on every patient record, so your systems always know the current state.

Data subject rights

Patients and their representatives can exercise their POPIA rights through our formal Data Subject Access Request (DSAR) process.

Structured DSAR process

Requests are submitted via a public form, verified against the requester's SA ID number, and tracked with a unique reference number. We respond within the 30-day SLA prescribed by POPIA. Every request is logged for audit purposes.

Secure session sharing with hospitals

When EMS providers share patient transfer data with receiving hospitals, the sharing mechanism itself is secured.

Cryptographic access tokens

Shared sessions use cryptographically random tokens with configurable expiry periods. Access is logged with timestamps and IP addresses. Role-based collaborator access ensures hospital staff see only what is relevant to the handover.

No sensitive data in emails

Notification emails contain only a link to the secure platform. Patient names, ID numbers, and clinical data are never included in email bodies or subject lines.

No sensitive data in logs

Application logs are essential for debugging and monitoring, but they must never contain patient data. UCIP filters all PII from logs automatically.

Filtered fields

Patient identifiers: SA ID, passport, medical aid

Medical data: allergies, medications, conditions

Clinical data: ISBAR, vitals, assessments

Auth data: passwords, 2FA secrets, API keys

Signatures: clinician and patient signatures

Web security headers

Every response from UCIP includes security headers that protect against common web attacks.

Content-Security-Policy Prevents XSS and code injection attacks

X-Frame-Options Blocks clickjacking by preventing iframe embedding

X-Content-Type-Options Prevents MIME type sniffing attacks

Referrer-Policy Controls what information is sent in the Referer header

Permissions-Policy Restricts browser features like camera, microphone, and geolocation

South African regulatory compliance

UCIP is built to comply with every relevant South African regulation governing healthcare data.

POPIA — Protection of Personal Information Act

Full compliance with all 8 conditions of lawful processing. Special personal information (health data) handled under Section 26-34 exemptions. View our full POPIA compliance page.

PAIA — Promotion of Access to Information Act

Our Section 51 manual is publicly available and describes the categories of records held, how to request access, and the applicable fees. View our PAIA manual.

HPCSA Guidelines

Record retention periods, clinical documentation standards, and practitioner confidentiality obligations are built into the platform's workflows and automated processes.

National Health Act

Patient confidentiality requirements under the National Health Act are enforced through access control, encryption, and audit logging at every layer of the platform.

Ready to see it in action?

We'd love to walk your IT and compliance team through our security architecture.

Your Patient Data Is Safe With Us