Electronic Personal Health Record Systems: A Review of Architectural, Privacy, and Security Issues

Working Paper #27 by Daglish and Archer, January 2009.

• Personal health records drew widespread attention as a consumer tool.
• Individuals enter their own data and access information from many sources.
• The patient's physician is normally the main information source.
• Patient input, prescriptions and lab results supplement it.
• Hospitals and other facilities add institutional inputs.
• Architecture must allow understandable access while blocking unauthorized access.
• The paper covered design and architecture, focusing on privacy and security.
• Careful privacy and security design determines consumer acceptance.

Keywords: personal health records, architecture, privacy, security.