Design and implementation of secure medical database systems

Medical database security plays an important role in the overall security of medical information systems and networks. This is both because of the nature of this technology and its widespread use today. Database security not only involves fundamental ethical principles, but also essential prerequisites for effective medical care. The development of appropriate secure medical database design and implementation methodologies is an important research problem in the area and a necessary prerequisite for the successful development of such systems. The general framework and requirements for medical database security are given and a number of parameters of the secure medical database design and implementation problem are presented and discussed in this paper. A secure medical database development methodology is also presented which could help overcome some of the problems currently encountered.