Distributed medical databases

What is it? A collection of patient information spread over two or more servers.

Advantages of distributed databases Security can be improved as not all the data is held in one place Speed of access improved as one server doesn’t have to deal with all the request for information from users

Back up and recovery Is downtime acceptable? How much data needs to be backed up? Where should data be stored? How often? When should data be backed up?

Ensuring the privacy of patient records. Access levels 128 bit Encryption Password Audit trails

EPR – Electronic patient record

Old paper based Many staff needed notes at the same time and had to photocopy in order to do this – very expensive Huge number of paper-based records caused storage and retrieval problems Handwritten notes written quickly and sometimes illegible Patient records frequently went missing

New electronic method Patient details available to view wherever there is a terminal Only one set of data kept so its easier to ensure consistency Security improved because the data can be protected using different permissions for different staff Much easier to back up data