An assessment of PKI and networked electronic patient record system: lessons learned from real patient data exchange at the platform of OCHIS (Osaka Community Healthcare Information System)

To enhance medical cooperation between the hospitals and clinics around Osaka local area, the healthcare network system, named Osaka Community Healthcare Information System (OCHIS), was established with support of a supplementary budget from the Japanese government in fiscal year 2002. Although the system has been based on healthcare public key infrastructure (PKI), there remain security issues to be solved technically and operationally. An experimental study was conducted to elucidate the central and the local function in terms of a registration authority and a time stamp authority in contract with the Japanese Medical Information Systems Organization (MEDIS) in 2003. This paper describes the experimental design and the results of the study concerning message security.