Security and Privacy

Abstract

In an ideal environment, physicians and others involved in cancer research and patient care would have easy access to needed information. Common sense, the Health Information Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), and related regulations demand that we defend such information from inappropriate modification and retrieval, thus protecting patient safety, the integrity of study results, and the privacy of patient health records. The challenge is deciding which information to protect, what kinds of protection to establish for each type of information, and who should have access to or permission to modify the data. Only when we establish such policies can we apply technical measures to provide appropriate safeguards.