Distributed medical databases

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