Aspects of healthcare computer networks security in the education of students of medicine and healthcare management

Abstract

Preserving privacy and confidentiality of medical data has always been a fundamental question in medicine and healthcare. Information technologies state even greater requirements to medical data security, especially when, as expected, medical data should be transferred between the different healthcare providers using specialized or public computer networks. The presented paper outlines some basic requirements to healthcare networks security, with which the future medical specialists should be well acquainted having in mind the ever growing implementation of information technologies including electronic medical records in daily medical practice. A model of the requirements to the security of electronic medical data is presented. It covers the two main trends in preserving the security of medical data when used via computer networks: (1) confidentiality and privacy of personal medical data, formalized in different political and legal issues and (2) security measures that should actually be performed. Confidentiality measures are discussed on the basis of preserving the initial right for the individuals privacy. Having in mind that data security measures in medicine do not differ in general from those measures in other areas of social life, special attention is paid to the security measures that we consider most important for medicine and healthcare: user identification and access control. The topics discussed are included in the modified curriculum of medical informatics for students of medicine and healthcare management in the Medical University of Varna, Bulgaria.