Security and Privacy of Technologies in Health Information Systems: A Systematic Literature Review

Abstract

Health information systems (HISs) have immense value for healthcare institutions, as they provide secure storage, efficient retrieval, insightful analysis, seamless exchange, and collaborative sharing of patient health information. HISs are implemented to meet patient needs, as well as to ensure the security and privacy of medical data, including confidentiality, integrity, and availability, which are necessary to achieve high-quality healthcare services. This systematic literature review identifies various technologies and methods currently employed to enhance the security and privacy of medical data within HISs. Various technologies have been utilized to enhance the security and privacy of healthcare information, such as the IoT, blockchain, mobile health applications, cloud computing, and combined technologies. This study also identifies three key security aspects, namely, secure access control, data sharing, and data storage, and discusses the challenges faced in each aspect that must be enhanced to ensure the security and privacy of patient information in HISs.

Cybersecurity for Sustainable Smart Healthcare: State of the Art, Taxonomy, Mechanisms, and Essential Roles

“…Medical data, which include a patient's medical history, diagnosis, treatments, and personal identifying information, are subject to breaches. Such breaches can have catastrophic repercussions, including identity theft, fraud, and medical misconduct [50]. The compromised healthcare data are highly valued on the dark web and black market [30].…”

“…Healthcare providers are adopting and implementing comprehensive routine data backup and recovery procedures to preserve the privacy and security of medical data in SHSs and apps [50]. Regular data backups in SHSs are the systematic and planned process of creating and safely storing recent and accurate copies of medical information and ensuring that the information is easily restored during medical data loss, corruption, or system failure [139].…”

Internet of Things (IoT) Data Communication Challenges, and Solutions

“…This not only protects the data from unauthorized access but also helps to maintain the integrity and credibility of the communication (Y. Li & Liu, 2021); (Shojaei et al, 2024). Authorization, on the other hand, refers to the process of determining what actions an individual or entity is allowed to perform within a system.…”