The need and practice of user authentication and TTP services in distributed health information systems

Abstract

Shared care requires open distributed information systems for supporting communication and co-operation. Regarding the sensitive character of personal medical information, such communication and co-operation must be provided securely. Meeting the European as well as national legislation, several projects such as ISHTAR, TrustHealth, MEDSEC, EUROMED-ETS, and HARP have been launched by the European Commission for specifying, implementing and evaluating appropriate security solutions. Based on the mentioned projects' results, a trustworthy shared care infrastructure is discussed in the paper. © 2002 Kluwer Academic / Plenum Publishers, New York.