Information security strategy in telemedicine and e-health systems: A case study of England’s shared electronic health record system

Abstract

Shared electronic health record (EHR) systems constitute an important Telemedicine and e-Health application. Successful implementation of shared health records calls for a satisfactory level of security. This is invariably achieved through applying and enforcing strict, and often quite complicated, rules and procedures in the access process. For this reason, information security strategy for EHR systems is needed to be in place. This research reviewed the definition of different terms that related to electronically stored and shared health records and delineated related information security terms leading to a definition of an information security strategy. This research also made a contribution to understanding information security strategy as a significant need in EHR systems. A major case study of the National Programme for IT (NPfIT) in England is used to be the container of other two sub-case studies in two different Acute Trusts. Different research methods used: participant observation and networking, semi-structured interviews, and documentary analysis. This research aimed to provide a comprehensive understanding to the information security strategy of England’s EHR system by presenting its different information security issues such as consent mechanisms, access control, sharing level, and related legal and regulatory documents. Six factors that influence the building of an information security strategy in EHR systems, were identified in this research, political, social, financial, technical, clinical and legal. Those factors are considered to be driving the strategy directly or indirectly. EHR systems are technical-clinical systems, but having other factors (than technical and clinical) that drive this technical-clinical system is a big concern. This research makes a significant contribution by identifying these factors, and in addition, this research shows not only how these factors can influence building the information security strategy, but also how they can influence each other. The study of the mutual influence among the six factors led to the argument that the most powerful factor is the political factor, as it directly or indirectly influences the remaining five factors. Finally, this research proposes guidelines for building an information security strategy in EHR systems. These guidelines are presented and discussed in the form of a framework. This framework was designed after literature analysis and after completing the whole research journey. It provides a tool to help putting the strategy in line by minimising the influence of various factors that may steer the strategy to undesirable directions.