Monday, August 23, 2010

Security Technologies for the Electronic Medical Record Systems EHR System

The Electronic Medical Record Systems EHR System's Security Technologies

Today a number of security technologies have been developed to solve the security problem. The major security technologies will be discussed below.

Electronic / Digital Signatures - An electronic record or Electronic Medical Record Systems EHR System can be signed electronically to identify and individual person. Digital signatures employ powerful cryptographic techniques that not only make signatures unforgettable, but also explicitly bound to a particular document.

Firewalls - Firewalls are systems of computers and switches that restrict to approved locations the destination or source of data entering or leaving the hospital. Firewalls are a good option for improving both the confidentiality of communications and authentication users. According to Greenstein and Feinman, functionality of firewalls - such as packet filtering, application-level proxies, and real-time monitoring-have been employed.

Encryption - Encryption is the process of encoding or scrambling a message so that the meaning of the message is not clear to unauthorized persons. It is one of the strongest measures used to improve communications security, particularly for Electronic Medical Record Systems EHR System. Two types of cryptographic mechanisms can be used to provide and encryption capability: symmetric cryptography where entities share a common secret key; and asymmetric cryptography or public key cryptography where each communicating entity has a unique key pair.

Biometric Identifiers - Biometrics require some physically unique characteristics of the user be used for identification. Biometric identifiers include retinal scans or fingerprints that can identify authorized users. Lewis state that these techniques are rarely used in health care institutions or Electronic Medical Record Systems EHR System because currently they require very costly equipment.

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