Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Experiment Videos

Web-enabled medical databases: a threat to security?

J Herrin1, B J Dempsey

  • 1National Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway. jeph.herrin@folkehelsa.no

Methods of Information in Medicine
|February 24, 2001
PubMed
Summary

Web-enabling clinical databases may pose security risks, but empirical evidence suggests the additional threat is minimal compared to traditional security concerns. This study assesses the security implications of using the World Wide Web for accessing patient data.

Related Concept Videos

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

Mental health problems as a cause of long-term sick leave in the Norwegian workforce.

Scandinavian journal of public health·2001
Same author

Continuing education meetings and workshops: effects on professional practice and health care outcomes.

The Cochrane database of systematic reviews·2001
Same author

Utilization of technologies to reduce allogeneic blood transfusion in the United States.

Transfusion medicine (Oxford, England)·2001
Same author

Quality improvement studies: the need is there but so are the challenges.

The American journal of medicine·2000
Same author

Household income losses associated with ischaemic heart disease for US employees.

PharmacoEconomics·2000
Same author

Variations among hospitals in the quality of care for heart failure.

Effective clinical practice : ECP·2000

Area of Science:

  • Health Informatics
  • Cybersecurity
  • Database Management

Background:

  • Clinical databases are increasingly accessible via Internet protocols like Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP).
  • The World Wide Web (WWW) offers a standardized, user-friendly interface for database access.
  • Concerns exist regarding the security and confidentiality of patient data when databases are web-enabled.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To estimate the additional risk of security violations associated with web-enabling clinical databases.
  • To provide empirical evidence on the security implications of using the World Wide Web for accessing sensitive patient information.

Main Methods:

  • Analysis of publicly available records to quantify security risks.
  • Estimation of the incremental security threat introduced by web-enabling database systems.

Related Experiment Videos

Main Results:

  • Limited empirical evidence suggests the additional security risk from web-enabling databases is relatively small.
  • The identified risks are considered minor when compared to conventional security threats faced by clinical databases.

Conclusions:

  • Web-enabling clinical databases does not introduce a substantial new security threat.
  • Further research may be needed to fully understand and mitigate all potential risks to patient data confidentiality.