Catherine Quantin¹, Gouenou Coatrieux², François André Allaert³, Maniane Fassa¹, Karima Bourquard⁴, Jean-Yves Boire⁵, Paul de Vlieger^5,6, Lydia Maigne⁶ and Vincent Breton⁶

¹Inserm, U866, Dijon, F-21000, France; Univ de Bourgogne, Dijon, F-21000, France; CHRU Dijon, Dpt. of Biostatistics and Medical Informatics, Dijon, F-21000, France. ²Institut Telecom; Telecom Bretagne; Unite INSERM 650 Latim, Brest. ³Ceren Esc Dijon and Department of Public Health University of Liege. ⁴GMSIH, Paris, France. ⁵ERIM-ERI 14 INSERM, Faculté de Médecine, Clermont Ferrand. ⁶LPC, UMR CNRS-IN2P3 Université Blaise Pascal, Clermont Ferrand.

Abstract

The main problem for health professionals and patients in accessing information is that this information is very often distributed over many medical records and locations. This problem is particularly acute in cancerology because patients may be treated for many years and undergo a variety of examinations. Recent advances in technology make it feasible to gain access to medical records anywhere and anytime, allowing the physician or the patient to gather information from an “ephemeral electronic patient record”. However, this easy access to data is accompanied by the requirement for improved security (confidentiality, traceability, integrity, ...) and this issue needs to be addressed. In this paper we propose and discuss a decentralised approach based on recent advances in information sharing and protection: Grid technologies and watermarking methodologies. The potential impact of these technologies for oncology is illustrated by the examples of two experimental cases: a cancer surveillance network and a radiotherapy treatment plan. It is expected that the proposed approach will constitute the basis of a future secure “google-like” access to medical records.