ICT in Telemedicine: Conquering Privacy and Security Issues In Health Care Services

Abstract

Advancement in telecommunication combined with improved information technology infrastructures has opened up new dimensions in e-health environment. Such technologies make readily available to access, store, manipulate and replicate medical information and images. These technologies help reduced the time and effort in diagnoses and treatment at lower cost. However, protection and authentication of such medical information and images are now becoming increasingly important in the telemedicine environment, where images are readily distributed over electronic networks.  Intruders/hackers may gain access to confidential information and possibly alter or even delete such vital records. The ultimate success of telemedicine demands an effective technology as well as privacy and security of records.  This paper explores recently identified privacy and security issues that affect telemedicine. We feature threats on security and authentication of medical records, and propose digital watermarking as a technology to curb authentication issues in telemedicine.