Security aspects in teleradiology workflow

The medicolegal necessity of privacy, security and confidentiality was the aim of the attempt to develop a secure teleradiology workflow between the telepartners - radiologist and the referring physician. To avoid the lack of dataprotection and datasecurity we introduced biometric fingerprint scanners in combination with smart cards to identify the teleradiology partners and communicated over an encrypted TCP/IP satellite link between Innsbruck and Reutte. We used an asymmetric kryptography method to guarantee authentification, integrity of the data-packages and confidentiality of the medical data. It was necessary to use a biometric feature to avoid a case of mistaken identity of persons, who wanted access to the system. Only an invariable electronical identification allowed a legal liability to the final report and only a secure dataconnection allowed the exchange of sensible medical data between different partners of Health Care Networks. In our study we selected the user friendly combination of a smart card and a biometric fingerprint technique, called Skymed(TM) Double Guard Secure Keyboard (Agfa-Gevaert) to confirm identities and log into the imaging workstations and the electronic patient record. We examined the interoperability of the used software with the existing plattforms. Only the WIN-XX operating systems could be protected at the time of our study.