E-Health and Privacy: Risks, Opportunities and Solutions

Abstract

E-Health is defined as the diagnosis and treatment, monitoring, prevention of diseases and the management of health completely by using information and communication technologies in health services. In E-Health systems, private information such as the patient's health history and personal information are stored and managed within a common standard, either as shareable electronic health records (EHR) or personal health records (PHR), where necessary. An increased number of users or unauthorized access to these records pose a threat to security and privacy. This eliminates patient privacy and violates patient rights. For this reason, it is very important to evaluate the issue of privacy in e-Health systems. Within the scope of this study, the issue of privacy in e-Health has been addressed within the framework of information and communication technologies, the studies proposed in the literature have been examined by considering possible risks and opportunities and finally, the future precautions/suggestions have been presented to the reader.