Inter-organizational future proof EHR systems: A review of the security and privacy related issues

OBJECTIVES Identification and analysis of privacy and security related issues that occur when health information is exchanged between health care organizations. METHODS Based on a generic scenario questions were formulated to reveal the occurring issues. Possible answers were verified in literature. RESULTS Ensuring secure health information exchange across organizations requires a standardization of security measures that goes beyond organizational boundaries, such as global definitions of professional roles, global standards for patient consent and semantic interoperable audit logs. CONCLUSION As to be able to fully address the privacy and security issues in interoperable EHRs and the long-life virtual EHR it is necessary to realize a paradigm shift from storing all incoming information in a local system to retrieving information from external systems whenever that information is deemed necessary for the care of the patient.