A risk management model for securing virtual healthcare communities. (20th December 2011)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Chryssanthou, Anargyros; Varlamis, Iraklis; Latsiou, Charikleia
• Is Part Of: International journal of electronic healthcare. Volume 6:Number 2/3/4(2011)
• Page Start: 95
• Page End: 116
• Publication Date: 2011-12-20
• Subjects: information security -- virtual communities -- ISO 27000 standards -- risk assessment -- risk management -- virtual healthcare -- web based communities -- security risks -- online communities; Medical informatics -- Periodicals; 362.10285
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1741-8453

Abstract

Virtual healthcare communities aim to bring together healthcare professionals and patients, improve the quality of healthcare services and assist healthcare professionals and researchers in their everyday activities. In a secure and reliable environment, patients share their medical data with doctors, expect confidentiality and demand reliable medical consultation. Apart from a concrete policy framework, several ethical, legal and technical issues must be considered in order to build a trustful community. This research emphasises on security issues, which can arise inside a virtual healthcare community and relate to the communication and storage of data. It capitalises on a standardised risk management methodology and a prototype architecture for healthcare community portals and justifies a security model that allows the identification, estimation and evaluation of potential security risks for the community. A hypothetical virtual healthcare community is employed in order to portray security risks and the solutions that the security model provides.