Identity Management and Audit Trail Support for Privacy Protection in E-Health Networks

Abstract

E-health networks can enable integrated healthcare services and data interoperability in the form of electronic health records accessible via Internet technology. Efficiency and quality of care can be improved for example by: streamlining administrative processes involving prescriptions and insurance payments; providing remote access to specialists through telemedicine; or correlating data from clinics, pharmacies and emergency rooms to detect potential adverse events. However, a major requirement to enable adoption of e-health networks is the ability to address issues around security, privacy and trust in a systematic manner. In particular, privacy legislation, regulatory guidelines, and organizational policies require that a framework for privacy protection must be established. Federated identity management can be used to systematically protect patient and health care provider identities in a single sign on framework that controls access to patient data, but an audit trail and reporting mechanism is needed in order to ensure and validate compliance. In this chapter, the authors use example e-health scenarios to analyze the legal, business and technical issues that need to be addressed.