Enhancing medical database security

A methodology for the enhancement of database security in a hospital environment is presented in this paper which is based on both the discretionary and the mandatory database security policies. In this way the advantages of both approaches are combined to enhance medical database security. An appropriate classification of the different types of users according to their different needs and roles and a User Role Definition Hierarchy has been used. The experience obtained from the experimental implementation of the proposed methodology in a major general hospital is briefly discussed. The implementation has shown that the combined discretionary and mandatory security enforcement effectively limits the unauthorized access to the medical database, without severely restricting the capabilities of the system.