July 2000 • Volume 6 • Number 7
Security issues still raise concerns
Few can mess with that pad of paper in your pocket, and hardly anyone can get to that file folder in the cabinet.
But when your "stuff" is on a computer network, either locally or on the Internet, there's a little more risk. That risk, and the concept of security, was on the minds of many at the Medical Records Institute's TEPR: 2000 (Toward an Electronic Patient Record) conference in San Francisco recently.
The bottom line? There's money to be made here, so someone's going to make it. Which means your data will be increasingly secure over time -- it just comes down to what it's going to cost you.
Among the cool stuff shown off at TEPR: 2000 was something called "biometrics." In short, this encompasses any one of several Star Trekish systems that use a device to scan your hand or your eyeball to ensure that you are you, and you are the one who should gain access to your information. It's out there now. It's costly but will be in range eventually.
Closer to home, TEPR: 2000 revealed that networked data is fairly safe with legacy methods -- those that are currently cutting edge now, and will become even better as the software industry continually adopts better sets of standards.
And as always, the best recommendation is awareness. Don't put anything in e-mail that you wouldn't want to read on the front page of the newspaper, and don't forget to password-protect all your patient information.
Short of a biometrics system, using passwords that aren't your nickname or the word "password" itself is a good start.
FP Report is published by the AAFP News Department.
Copyright © 2000 by American Academy of Family Physicians.
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