Protecting Web-based Patient Portal for the Security and Privacy of Electronic Medical Records

Patient portals, such as Myhealthatvanderbilt.com, AdjuvantHealth, Medical Web Experts, are web-based systems that allow both physicians and patients to access and manage patient medical records via the Internet, facilitate clinical workflow and enable data sharing and collaboration. Serving as the front-end to a huge amount of sensitive information (e.g., medical records, billing), the patient portal is an essential link in the chain of ensuring patient data security and privacy. In August 2000, it was reported that over 800 patients’ sensitive information was breached through KPOnline, a web-based healthcare portal, due to a small piece of flawed software that is integrated into the system [3].