Development of a user authentication system based on public key certificates for healthcase information service in national university hospitals

Abstract

AbstractIn the development of healthcare information networks, a serious problem is assuring the security of the healthcare information. At the present stage, the national university hospitals are among the most advanced medical facilities in terms of healthcare information networks. However, it sometimes happens that a subsystem without strict user authentication is present even in the healthcare information system of a national university hospital. Consequently, the authors developed a system that can provide security services such as user authentication, user management, and privilege management. The proposed system can easily be built into the existing healthcare information system. Since user authentication, user management, and privilege management are integrated, a healthcare information system with greater security than in the past can be realized. Furthermore, public key certificates and attribute certificates are used. Consequently, the system can be extended in the future to a wide‐area user authentication system based on the public key framework in the national university hospital network and the local healthcare network. This paper describes the design and implementation of the national university healthcare information user authentication system and provides an introduction to the existing university hospital healthcare information system. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electron Comm Jpn Pt 2, 86(9): 53–63, 2003; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/ecjb.10181