Privacy and security risks for national health records systems

Abstract

A review of national health records (NEHR) systems shows that privacy and security risks have a profound impact on the success of such projects. Countries have different approaches when dealing with privacy and security considerations. The aims of this study were to explore how governments can design secure national health records systems. To do that systematically, we developed a framework to analyze NEHR systems. We then applied the framework to investigate the privacy and security risks in these systems. The studied systems demonstrate that getting privacy and security right have a considerable impact on the success of NEHR projects. Also, our study reveals that the healthcare system structure has a substantial impact on the adoption and usage rates of the system. The studied cases uncover many opportunities for improving privacy and security measures in future projects. The framework demonstrates the utility of applying it to the three cases.