Security and Privacy With Mobile Health (mHealth)
Mobile health apps are spreading through the developing world faster than anyone is securing the data they collect.
Technology is being used around the world to improve healthcare services, but the reliance on technology creates new types of threats regarding security and privacy, claims Leonardo Iwaya, Ph.D. computer science student at Karlstad University in Sweden.
Iwaya is looking into ways of securing information and protecting privacy when using “mHealth”, which is a mobile application used in healthcare services.
Mobile apps are for example used in developing countries to increase the coverage and the access to public healthcare. However, many projects fail because issues related to data security and privacy cannot be successfully integrated into the systems.
In Brazil, mHealth is used by community health workers to improve treatment in developing areas. Phones are used to take notes and gather information in order to prevent conditions.
“My part in the project has been to look at how systems are designed and data is processed with respect to data protection and privacy,” says Iwaya. “These issues have to be considered from the start if you want to develop digital healthcare systems in which information is properly secured and privacy is protected.”
Karlstad University. “Security and privacy in electronic healthcare systems.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 15 June 2017. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/06/170615084754.htm>.
