The deficiencies found in conventional paper-based patient records, practiced in healthcare service provision, have resulted in the emerging development of electronic patient record (EPR) systems. This paper proposes a cryptographybased EPR security model guaranteeing the patient’s record integrity, accountability, confidentiality and patient record access consent. For this model several possible cryptographic security mechanisms are studied. The advantages and disadvantages of each scheme are considered, and based on the EPR requirements the mechanism with best results is suggested.