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Medical information retrieval and WWW browsers at Mayo
C G Chute1, D L Crowson, J D Buntrock
1Section of Medical Information Resources, Mayo Clinic/Foundation, Rochester, MN, USA.
Proceedings. Symposium on Computer Applications in Medical Care
|January 1, 1995
Summary
Mayo Clinic is exploring secure web access to patient data for research, addressing privacy, authentication, and technical challenges. This initiative aims to improve data accessibility while maintaining strict confidentiality standards.
Area of Science:
- Medical Informatics
- Health Information Management
Background:
- Mayo Clinic has a long history of indexing patient information for research since 1909.
- The advent of the World Wide Web (WWW) presents new opportunities for accessing this data.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review Mayo Clinic's experience in providing WWW access to patient information databases.
- To identify and generalize key issues related to secure and confidential data retrieval.
Main Methods:
- Review of recent experiences with web-based access to patient information.
- Analysis of technical and security challenges in interfacing disparate databases.
Main Results:
- Providing universal WWW access highlights critical issues in privacy and confidentiality.
- User authentication, need-to-know principles, and data transmission security are paramount.
- Interfacing diverse databases across multiple platforms and browsers presents significant technical hurdles.
Conclusions:
- Implementing web-based access to sensitive patient data requires careful consideration of security and privacy.
- Addressing technical complexities is essential for successful integration of disparate information systems.