‘‘ Towards Secure Interoperability Electronic Health Record among Healthcare Organizations in Palestine رسالة ماجستير

Abstract

The development of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in the world is constantly increasing in the various fields of e-health, which contribute to facilitating and developing healthcare, simplifying procedures, and improving the quality of healthcare, which is positively reflected in patients, physicians, and healthcare providers. E-Health suffers from the problem of interoperability between different healthcare institutions, to share and exchange Electronic Health Records (EHR). Healthcare centers in Palestine have different health information systems, which has made sharing health information more difficult and complex. In developed countries, many frameworks and systems support interoperability between health care institutions according to international standards that guarantee privacy and security. It will surely provide many great benefits for all stakeholders (physicians, patients, and healthcare providers). This research aims, firstly, to investigate the current status of electronic health records accreditation in Palestine, in addition to the readiness of the various healthcare centers to achieve interoperability, and secondly to propose an appropriate technical framework for interoperability, which achieves the secure exchange of electronic health records between the various health care institutions in Palestine. The mixed method approach (qualitative, and quantitative) was used to achieve the objectives of the research, where the qualitative results based on interviews with information technology specialists in many private and public healthcare hospitals in Palestine, revealed that the health systems used in private institutions differ from health systems in public institutions, in addition to the consensus of all Interviewees on The necessity of achieving interoperability, the challenges of interoperability were discussed, including security, V privacy, high costs, and the lack of adequate infrastructure, in addition to the lack of necessary standards for interoperability. Interviewees were consensus about the need for a decentralized environment for interoperability in Palestine, unanimity on the importance of interoperability and its great benefits for patients, physicians, and health care providers, there is also consensus that ICT is capable of achieving secure interoperability. The quantitative results through the analysis of the questionnaires showed the challenges and benefits of interoperability in addition to the technical and informational interoperability requirements. The analysis indicated the great benefit of interoperability for patients and stakeholders from the point of view of health workers and their support for its achievement in Palestine, in addition to the challenges of interoperability. Quantitative and qualitative studies confirmed that there is no electronic exchange of electronic health records between private and public health care centers, and stressed the need to achieve interoperability to improve the quality of health care in Palestine and keep pace with the world in health technology development. Based on these results, the researcher proposed a framework for secure interoperability in Palestine owned by the Palestinian Ministry of Telecommunications and Information Technology, called (UXP/XROAD) to share the EHR in a standard format that computers and various applications can use.