A Comparative Study of Security Standards in Healthcare Information Systems

Health Information Systems (HIS) are revolutionizing the healthcare industry today. One of the most important benefits of such systems is that they are able to gather, store and analyze information about patient history and medical conditions, which is highly instrumental in getting best health outcomes. However, with the proliferation of HIS, there are security concerns regarding the confidentiality, integrity and availability of healthcare information. This is because open access to information and IT networks makes information systems vulnerable to a variety of threats, both internal and external. At the same time, organizations and their employees are increasingly aware that security should be implemented as a top priority just like scheduling, budgeting, and staffing. This is because a breach of even a fraction of the information handled by Healthcare Organizations (HCOs) could require many employees to devote a significant part of their time to investigating the breach, could lead to court cases and fines, and could result in loss of “face” and respect for the organization along with a collapse of internal and external confidence. Consequently, over the years, there has been increasing attention from both practitioners and researchers on the security of HIS. The objective of this research work is to review the state of security standards in HIS and to recommend how HIS could be better secured.