| Description |
Societal Context: Computer technology, patient sensors, and networking are revolutionizing
several aspects of healthcare and medical information processing. Small wireless sensors will
free many patients from managed care facilities, while providing timely medical assistance when
needed. At the other end of the spectrum, virtually all patients will soon gain greater control
over their records and treatment options through web portals. The TRUST Electronic Medical Records (EMR) project
addresses the complex security and privacy issues emerging from the rapidly increasing use of
electronic media for the archival and access of patient records. This change is driven and
strongly influenced by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA).
EMR has become an area where technology, public policy and individual interests intersect and
conflict, making the development of information systems for EMR archiving and access a very
challenging problem. There is clear evidence that without a detailed understanding of the
relevant issues on all sides, an acceptable solution cannot and will not emerge.
Integrative Testbed: The integrative project will leverage a cooperative relationship established
with the Informatics Institute and the Biomedical Informatics Department of the Vanderbilt
University Medical Center (VUMC). The MyHealthAtVanderbilt system – a functioning
experimental patient portal – is a unique resource that will be used as the basis for
experimentation and interaction through real-life deployment scenarios. The MyHealth portal
has enrolled over 8,000 patients and is growing at the rate of more than 1,000 new enrollees
per month, making it one of the largest operational healthcare portals in the world.
MyHealthAtVanderbilt gives patients secure messaging with their providers, the ability to make
appointments online, see the contents of their medical records, and request changes to care
plans and records. Experience with this portal has highlighted the inadequacy of our current
understanding of the interdependences among aspects of security and privacy, systems design
and policy.
Research Collaboration: External collaborators in the EMR project are:
- UMC: Their contribution to the project are (a) access to the
MyHealthAtVanderbilt patient portal and (b) collaborating research team working
on medical informatics aspects and clinical trial.
- Information Technology for Assisted Living at Home (ITALH) project at Berkeley:
Contribution to the project are (a) smart sensing technologies that enable alert
monitoring and long-term out-patient biometric data and (b) tools to integrate
sensor systems into EMR.
Internal collaborations in the EMR project are extensive, all partner Universities participate in
one or more research areas in the project.
Activities: Our work focused on identification of challenges, establishing collaborative
relationship with VUMC and planning.
Dan Masys (VUMC): “Electronic Medical Records and Secure Patient Portals as
an application domain for Team Research in Ubiquitous Secure Technologies,”
White Paper, October 2005
Dan Masys (VUMC) and Janos Sztipanovits VU-ISIS co-chairs: Design Workshop for an Integrative Project related to Patient Portals, Vanderbilt Center for Better Health, Nashville, TN, December 16, 2005
Janos Sztipanovits, Ruzena Bajcsy, Mike Eklund and Shankar Sastry: “TRUST
Electronic Medical Record Proposal,” March 2006
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