Data Security Overview for Medical Mobile Apps Assuring the Confidentiality, Integrity and Availability of Data in Transmission

摘要

Mobile medical apps are a growing mechanism for healthcare delivery through an increasingly complex network of information technology systems connectingudpatients, doctors, nurses, pharmacists and medical devices. Characteristically, these apps are designed to gather measure and transmit sensitive personal health data, which is required to be kept secure through regulations and legislation. With the integration of mobile medical apps into the healthcare industry, the multitude of sensitive personal health data transmitted across various applications, technologies and networks is increasing. This raises questions about compromised patient privacy and the security of the data associated with the mobile apps. The detections of increased app hacking by security companies and researchers are especially significant amidst today’s rapid growth in healthcare mobile apps. Consequently, security and integrity of the data associated with these apps is a growing concern for the app industry, particularly in the highly regulated medical domain. Until recently, data integrity and security in transmission has not been given serious consideration in the development of mobile medical apps. This paper provides an overview of existing mobile medical apps data security issues and security practices. We discuss current regulations concerning data security for mobile medical apps. The paper introduces our current research in data security for mobile medical apps. There are currently no procedures or standard practices for developers of mobile medical apps to assure data integrity and security. The paper introduces the concept of a process model to assist mobile medical app developers to implement data security requirements to assure the Confidentiality, Integrity and Availability of data in transmission. The research is grounded on the only published medical device security standard IEC/TR 80001-2-2:2012.