Security in Telehealth Systems From a Software Engineering Viewpoint: A Systematic Mapping Study

Gaston Marquez,Carla Taramasco,Hernan Astudillo

doi:10.1109/access.2020.2964988

Gaston Marquez, Carla Taramasco + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1109/access.2020.2964988

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Abstract

Telehealth systems deliver remote care of elderly and physically less able patients as well as remote surgeries, treatments, and diagnoses. In this regard, several systemic properties must be satisfied (such as security) in order to ensure the functionality of Telehealth systems. Although existing studies discuss different security episodes that involve Telehealth systems, it is difficult to have a clear standpoint about which are the most reported security issues and which solutions have been proposed. Furthermore, since Telehealth systems are composed of several software systems, it is not clear which critical areas of Software Engineering are relevant to develop secure Telehealth systems. This article reports a systematic mapping study (SMS) whose purpose is to detect, organize, and characterize security issues in Telehealth systems. Based on the SMS results, we examine how Software Engineering may help to develop secure Telehealth systems. From over a thousand studies, we distinguished and classified 41 primary studies. Results show that (i) four security classifications ( attacks , vulnerabilities , weaknesses , and threats ) concentrate the most reported security issues; (ii) three security strategies ( detect attacks , stop or mitigate attacks and react to attacks ) characterize security issues, and (iii) the most relevant research themes are related to insecure data transmission and privacy. The SMS’s findings suggest that software design, requirements, and models are key areas to develop secure Telehealth systems.

Highlights

Telehealth systems are remote technology-based virtual platforms that promote (i) health care, (ii) public health, and (iii) health administration [1]
This paper is organized as follows: Section II describes the background of our study; Section III details the systematic mapping protocol; Section IV shows the systematic mapping study (SMS) results; Section V discusses the role of Software Engineering to address security concerns on Telehealth systems; Section VI describes the threats to the validity; Section VII details related work; and Section VIII draws concluding remarks
Taking as reference the findings of the previous section, this section discusses how Software Engineering can contribute to building secure Telehealth systems

Summary

INTRODUCTION

Telehealth systems are remote technology-based virtual platforms that promote (i) health care, (ii) public health, and (iii) health administration [1]. Since Telehealth systems are composed of software systems, these can include emerging technologies (such as robotics [4], mobile [5], the Internet of Things (IoT) [6], and others) to provide better remote services to their patients This adoption brings many gains to patient care, and leads to new challenges, such as security. This paper is organized as follows: Section II describes the background of our study; Section III details the systematic mapping protocol; Section IV shows the SMS results; Section V discusses the role of Software Engineering to address security concerns on Telehealth systems; Section VI describes the threats to the validity; Section VII details related work; and Section VIII draws concluding remarks

BACKGROUND

DATA ANALYSIS

RESULTS

DISCUSSION

THREATS TO VALIDITY

VIII. CONCLUSION