Comparing approaches for advanced e-health security infrastructures

Area of Science:

• Health Informatics
• Information Security
• Systems Architecture

Background:

• Healthcare systems globally face challenges in quality, efficiency, and patient safety.
• A shift towards process-based and person-centered care is occurring, enabled by information and communication technologies (ICT), or e-health.
• Ensuring the trustworthiness of e-health solutions is paramount.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify essential security services for trustworthy e-health solutions.
• To evaluate existing and proposed security architectures and infrastructure for e-health applications.
• To compare different approaches, including the German health telematics framework and the USA Veterans Health Administration security model.

Main Methods:

• Review and introduction of internationally acknowledged architectural paradigms for security services.
• Description and comparison of existing and specified advanced e-health security solutions.
• Evaluation of security services needed for e-health, with a focus on the Electronic Health Record.

Main Results:

• A set of security services and infrastructure services are necessary for trustworthy e-health.
• Compliance with architectural principles and paradigms is crucial for future-proofing e-health solutions.
• Analysis of specific national approaches (Germany, USA) provides insights into practical implementation.

Conclusions:

• Formal policy modeling and policy bridging are critical challenges for secure communication and collaboration in e-health.
• Recommendations are provided for establishing trustworthiness in e-health solutions at various scales.
• The study emphasizes the need for robust security to support the transformation towards person-centered healthcare.