1st International ICST Workshop on Security and Privacy in Mobile Health Care

Research Article

A secure wireless architecture to access a virtual electronic patient record

  • @INPROCEEDINGS{10.1109/PCTHEALTH.2006.361668,
        author={Ana Ferreira and Luis Barreto and Pedro Brandao and Ricardo Correia and Susana Sargento and Luis Antunes},
        title={A secure wireless architecture to access a virtual electronic patient record},
        proceedings={1st International ICST Workshop on Security and Privacy in Mobile Health Care},
        publisher={IEEE},
        proceedings_a={PMHCS},
        year={2007},
        month={5},
        keywords={Electronic patient records wireless networks information security.},
        doi={10.1109/PCTHEALTH.2006.361668}
    }
    
  • Ana Ferreira
    Luis Barreto
    Pedro Brandao
    Ricardo Correia
    Susana Sargento
    Luis Antunes
    Year: 2007
    A secure wireless architecture to access a virtual electronic patient record
    PMHCS
    ICST
    DOI: 10.1109/PCTHEALTH.2006.361668
Ana Ferreira1,*, Luis Barreto2, Pedro Brandao3, Ricardo Correia4, Susana Sargento5, Luis Antunes3
  • 1: Center for Informatics at Faculty of Medicine in Porto, Portugal (Phone: +351 22 551 3613; Fax: +351 22 551 3613)
  • 2: Escola Superior de Ciencias Empresariais, Instituto Politecnico de Viana do Castelo, Valenca, Portugal
  • 3: LIACC at Faculty of Science in Porto, Portugal. Luis Antunes is partially founded by KCrypt
  • 4: Biostatistics and Medical Informatics Department, at Faculty ofMedicine in Porto, Portugal.
  • 5: Instituto de Telecomunicacoes - Universidade de Aveiro, Campus Universitario de Santiago, Aveiro, Portugal
*Contact email: amlaf@med.up.pt

Abstract

Virtual electronic patient records (VEPR) enable the integration and sharing of healthcare information within large and heterogeneous organizations. The use of wireless technology can improve and hasten healthcare treatment because it brings information to the point of decision allowing also for users' mobility. This use has to comply with security requirements as the wireless technology introduces some specific security problems. The main objective of this work is to model and develop a proposal for a secure wireless architecture in order to access a VEPR. This VEPR is being used within a university hospital by more than 500 doctors, on a daily basis. Its users would greatly benefit if this service would be extended to a wider part of the hospital and not only to their workplace. They would achieve faster and greater mobility in the treatment of their patients. The wireless architecture includes the latest wireless security standards and protocols, and models security requirements according to users and organizations' needs. It provides an extra security layer to the wired system. An evaluation of the proposed solutions against network attacks and its efficiency in terms of complexity and impact within the network are also presented in this paper.