Integrated personal health record (PHR) security: requirements and mechanisms

Abstract

Background Personal Health Records (PHRs) are designed to fulfill the goals of electronic health (eHealth) and empower the individual in the process of self-care. Integrated PHR can improve the quality of care, strengthen the patient-healthcare provider relationship, and reduce healthcare costs. Still, the process of PHR acceptance and use has been slow and mainly hindered by people’s concerns about the security of their personal health information. Thus, the present study aimed to identify the Integrated PHR security requirements and mechanisms. Methods In this applied study, PHR security requirements were identified with a literature review of (library sources, research articles, scientific documents, and reliable websites). The identified requirements were classified, and a questionnaire was developed accordingly. Thirty experts completed the questionnaire in a two-round Delphi technique, and the data were analyzed by descriptive statistics. Results The PHR security requirements were identified and classified into seven dimensions confidentiality, availability, integrity, authentication, authorization, non-repudiation, and right of access, each dimension having certain mechanisms. On average, the experts reached an agreement about the mechanisms of confidentiality (94.67%), availability (96.67%), integrity (93.33%), authentication (100%), authorization (97.78%), non-repudiation (100%), and right of access (90%). Conclusion Integrated PHR security is a requirement for its acceptance and use. To design a useful and reliable integrated PHR, system designers, health policymakers, and healthcare organizations must identify and apply security requirements to guarantee the privacy and confidentiality of data.

Design a Software Reference Architecture to Enhance Privacy and Security in Electronic Health Records

“…Requirements [20] This work focuses on the security requirements of integrated PHRs, which combine EHR information from institutional medical records with patient self-reported data. The authors conducted a literature review and used the Delphi technique to identify seven dimensions of integrated PHR security requirements.…”

Balancing stakeholder interests and paradoxes in health data sharing within health ecosystems

“…The second group is healthcare providers, comprising hospitals, healthcare centres, doctors, and primary care nurses. Additionally, outside the healthcare-providing sector, companies, universities, research entities, insurance companies, and other legal entities [1,2] are interested in healthcare data.…”

“…Personal health data has not yet been fully utilised for use in developing health innovations because of barriers to secondary use of the health data, which 11. 4.2024 FinJeHeW 2024;16 (1) include ethical issues, legal uncertainty, the burden of complaints [3], privacy, information security, discrimination, the right to access data, and the abuse of data [4][5][6][7][8][9]. These challenges are also associated with data management and security when combining data from multiple sources, e.g., registries, biobanks, and sensors, and missing a trustful platform for storing, managing, and controlling the data among different stakeholders [10].…”

Analysis of Publications on Health Information Management Using the Science Mapping Method: A Holistic Perspective

“…The healthcare industry is rapidly evolving to meet the demands and opportunities of digital transformation [1][2][3]. This evolutionary process includes some headlines such as "technology adoption" [4], "standardized clinical coding" [5], "health information system success" [6], "electronic record types" [7], "personal health information management" [8], "consumer health informatics" [9], "eHealth and eMobile health technologies" [10], "country frameworks and standards for HIS" [11], and "critical health information management". The acceptance of technology is the foundation of HIM [12].…”