Prevalence of Sharing Access Credentials in Electronic Medical Records
ObjectivesConfidentiality of health information is an important aspect of the physician patient relationship. The use of digital medical records has made data much more accessible. To prevent data leakage, many countries have created regulations regarding medical data accessibility. These regulation...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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The Korean Society of Medical Informatics
2017-07-01
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| Series: | Healthcare Informatics Research |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://e-hir.org/upload/pdf/hir-23-176.pdf |
| _version_ | 1819001518026653696 |
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| author | Ayal Hassidim Tzfania Korach Rony Shreberk-Hassidim Elena Thomaidou Florina Uzefovsky Shahar Ayal Dan Ariely |
| author_facet | Ayal Hassidim Tzfania Korach Rony Shreberk-Hassidim Elena Thomaidou Florina Uzefovsky Shahar Ayal Dan Ariely |
| author_sort | Ayal Hassidim |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | ObjectivesConfidentiality of health information is an important aspect of the physician patient relationship. The use of digital medical records has made data much more accessible. To prevent data leakage, many countries have created regulations regarding medical data accessibility. These regulations require a unique user ID for each medical staff member, and this must be protected by a password, which should be kept undisclosed by all means.MethodsWe performed a four-question Google Forms-based survey of medical staff. In the survey, each participant was asked if he/she ever obtained the password of another medical staff member. Then, we asked how many times such an episode occurred and the reason for it.ResultsA total of 299 surveys were gathered. The responses showed that 220 (73.6%) participants reported that they had obtained the password of another medical staff member. Only 171 (57.2%) estimated how many time it happened, with an average estimation of 4.75 episodes. All the residents that took part in the study (45, 15%) had obtained the password of another medical staff member, while only 57.5% (38/66) of the nurses reported this.ConclusionsThe use of unique user IDs and passwords to defend the privacy of medical data is a common requirement in medical organizations. Unfortunately, the use of passwords is doomed because medical staff members share their passwords with one another. Strict regulations requiring each staff member to have it's a unique user ID might lead to password sharing and to a decrease in data safety. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-20T22:50:29Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-218e09ab4bff486db93fc39a7fda8db8 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2093-3681 2093-369X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-20T22:50:29Z |
| publishDate | 2017-07-01 |
| publisher | The Korean Society of Medical Informatics |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Healthcare Informatics Research |
| spelling | doaj.art-218e09ab4bff486db93fc39a7fda8db82022-12-21T19:24:15ZengThe Korean Society of Medical InformaticsHealthcare Informatics Research2093-36812093-369X2017-07-0123317618210.4258/hir.2017.23.3.176887Prevalence of Sharing Access Credentials in Electronic Medical RecordsAyal Hassidim0Tzfania Korach1Rony Shreberk-Hassidim2Elena Thomaidou3Florina Uzefovsky4Shahar Ayal5Dan Ariely6Department of Plastic Surgery, Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical Center, Jerusalem, Israel.Division of General Internal Medicine and Primary Care, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.Department of Dermatology, Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical Center, Jerusalem, Israel.Department of Dermatology, Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical Center, Jerusalem, Israel.Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Be'er Sheva, Israel.Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya, Israel.Duke University, Durham, NC, USA.ObjectivesConfidentiality of health information is an important aspect of the physician patient relationship. The use of digital medical records has made data much more accessible. To prevent data leakage, many countries have created regulations regarding medical data accessibility. These regulations require a unique user ID for each medical staff member, and this must be protected by a password, which should be kept undisclosed by all means.MethodsWe performed a four-question Google Forms-based survey of medical staff. In the survey, each participant was asked if he/she ever obtained the password of another medical staff member. Then, we asked how many times such an episode occurred and the reason for it.ResultsA total of 299 surveys were gathered. The responses showed that 220 (73.6%) participants reported that they had obtained the password of another medical staff member. Only 171 (57.2%) estimated how many time it happened, with an average estimation of 4.75 episodes. All the residents that took part in the study (45, 15%) had obtained the password of another medical staff member, while only 57.5% (38/66) of the nurses reported this.ConclusionsThe use of unique user IDs and passwords to defend the privacy of medical data is a common requirement in medical organizations. Unfortunately, the use of passwords is doomed because medical staff members share their passwords with one another. Strict regulations requiring each staff member to have it's a unique user ID might lead to password sharing and to a decrease in data safety.http://e-hir.org/upload/pdf/hir-23-176.pdfelectronic medical recordspersonal health recordsconfidentialityhealth insurance portability and accountability actmedical legislation |
| spellingShingle | Ayal Hassidim Tzfania Korach Rony Shreberk-Hassidim Elena Thomaidou Florina Uzefovsky Shahar Ayal Dan Ariely Prevalence of Sharing Access Credentials in Electronic Medical Records Healthcare Informatics Research electronic medical records personal health records confidentiality health insurance portability and accountability act medical legislation |
| title | Prevalence of Sharing Access Credentials in Electronic Medical Records |
| title_full | Prevalence of Sharing Access Credentials in Electronic Medical Records |
| title_fullStr | Prevalence of Sharing Access Credentials in Electronic Medical Records |
| title_full_unstemmed | Prevalence of Sharing Access Credentials in Electronic Medical Records |
| title_short | Prevalence of Sharing Access Credentials in Electronic Medical Records |
| title_sort | prevalence of sharing access credentials in electronic medical records |
| topic | electronic medical records personal health records confidentiality health insurance portability and accountability act medical legislation |
| url | http://e-hir.org/upload/pdf/hir-23-176.pdf |
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