Assistance in uptake of PKI in the region
Background Information
Public Key Infrastructure, commonly referred to as PKI is an Information Technology (IT) infrastructure that enables the secure exchange of data. Therefore, PKI is a set of not only software tools, but hardware, network services and management techniques (policy and procedures) that work together to provide a web of "trust".
Medicare Australia's PKI is based on the Australian Gatekeeper framework and conformed to the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO): Health Informatics - Public Key Infrastructure technical specification (ISO/TS 17090).
PKI has been adopted by the Australian Government to provide a robust system of security for online health transactions. PKI management has now been taken over by the National eHealth Transition Authority (NEHTA) who will be running an introductory workshop on PKI in Brisbane on May 15th and 16th.
With the introduction of the Electronic Transactions Act 1999 and as part of the Government's Online Strategy, Medicare Australia is now able to provide the IT standards that Medicare Australia requires for electronic transmission, scanning and storage of Referrals to specialists/consultant physicians and Requests for pathology and diagnostic imaging services.
Potential Project
Concern has been raised over the current percentage of health professionals in the region without PKI certificates and the resulting implications of this.
A potential project would be to review the current regional health professionals PKI status, to assess why there has been a lack of uptake and aim to increase the percentage of professionals using PKI to allow more sharing of information between professionals. The project should also investigate other secure mechanisms for transport of electronic healthcare data other than PKI to ensure this is still the best method.
|
