[Strategy for securing medical documents by electronic signature and encryption]

The paper presents a survey of security strategies for the protection of medical documents which are generated, stored, and exchanged electronically. It is not meant to provide a precise technical background but to give a guideline for interested medical professionals. A systematic approach for the definition of appropriate security requirements is outlined, and generally accepted security functions (services) are described. The major part of the paper is dedicated to a technical introduction to state-of-the-art security mechanisms based on cryptographic methods. Finally, actual implementation problems and perspectives are discussed from a German/European viewpoint.