iance, such as fines of up to $250,000 and 10 years imprisonment for intentional misuse of patient information. These systems are being upgraded to address: entity authentication (log-in security); authorization and access control; transaction reporting and logging; and data encryption. There needs to be an audit trail for access to PACS.
The Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE) is a joint program of the Health Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) and the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) (RSNA, 1998). It is a cooperative effort to facilitate comprehensive integration among electronic healthcare information and management systems. Since 1992, RSNA has promoted the use of Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) as a standard for transferring medical images among computers. Integration of medical information systems has the potential to increase security, and to protect patient confidentiality. Providing the linkage between existing information systems reduces the number of hands through which the information has to pass, and so reduces exposure of patient information. The system allows the use of built-in security measures such as passwords and audit trails so that authorized access to the information can be monitored and unauthorized access curtailed.
Under the IHE integration profiles, the Basic Security Integration Profile establishes the basic security measures necessary to help protect the confidentiality of patient information as part of an institutionÆs overall security practices and procedures (RSNALink, 2004). It provides a mechanism to consolidate audit trail events on user activity across several systems which are interconnected in a secure manner. It is available to all imaging systems throughout an institution.
Shands Hospital at the University of Florida in Gainesville had to hire a security and privacy officer to work with the hospital staff a...