Privacy Challenges in the Use of eHealth Systems for Public Health Management

Privacy is a major issue in information management for public health needs. For example, the surveillance of infectious diseases, such as HIV, is an important function of public health and it presents major privacy concerns for affected people. While their privacy must be protected, privacy concerns should not come in the way of effective data collection and surveillance. In this paper, the authors present a survey of published work covering privacy challenges in the use of eHealth systems, especially in the context of public health management. The authors identify and present the major privacy challenges, their effects on personal patient privacy and public health management based on the review of research in electronic data privacy and eHealth privacy. The authors also present a survey of privacy-preserving technologies and solutions that address these challenges.