HOW TO DEAL WITH SECURITY ISSUES IN TELERADIOLOGY

The use of teleradiological systems for medical image communication is increasing significantly. Digital images can be transferred over publ ic telephone (e.g. ISDN) lines to colleagues for interpretation and/or consultation. Thus, a new quality is being introduced into the proces s of radiological diagnostics. However, technical implementation of su ch systems is accompanied by little consideration of legal, i.e. data protection and security, issues. In this paper we describe a concept f or data protection in teleradiology which unites aspects of privacy an d security as well as user aspects. After highlighting the legal situa tion in Germany we describe the methodology used for deriving the secu rity profile for teleradiology in Germany. As a result the set of secu rity measures which have to be employed with a teleradiology system is listed. A detailed description follows of how the software requiremen ts are implemented in the teleradiology software MEDICUS. (C) 1997 Els evier Science Ireland Ltd.