Improving outcomes with interoperable EHRs and secure global health information infrastructure

The central piece for healthcare and public health is information. Through the shared use of the Internet and the WWW, for example, elder patients can be "visited, diagnosed, treated and managed" from their homes, with the help of telemedicine systems. This technology also provides society with additional benefits within a global health perspective, with applications ranging from disease prevention and genetics to surveillance and epidemiologic studies. At the same time questions arise regarding: privacy of that information, quality of the services delivered and in general the information assurance process, i.e., authenticity, confidentiality, integrity, availability, and non-repudiation. A common aspect to information protection and sharing standards for interoperability. In the continuity of a previous IEEE EMBS mini-symposium [1], this mini-symposium aims at debating about critical issues to be considered between the needs for medical information (EHR) sharing and assurance within the healthcare and the other critical infrastructures. Speakers will present challenges introduced by the information security and assurance aspects of the healthcare and public health environment. This special session will be concluded by a panel discussion that will associate the technical issues presented to the: social, economic, political and ethical issues that drive policy and its implications.