Opportunities and challenges: Security in ehealth

eHealth is the transfer of health resources and health care by electronic means, and is enabled by communications technology through extensive information sharing and collaboration. Given the sensitive nature of medical information, and healthcare professionals' high degree of dependence on reliable records, issues of integrity, security, privacy, and confidentiality are of particular significance, and thus security must be clearly and effectively addressed by eHealth applications. This letter highlights the challenges, drivers, and standardization initiatives for security, compliance, and interoperability in health-related activities carried out over distance by means of information communication technologies. © 2012 Alcatel-Lucent.