Ranking Functions of Health Information Systems in Terms of Privacy

This research work represents the Master’s Thesis on the topic “Ranking functions of health information systems in terms of privacy”. Research Object is health information systems. Research Subject is privacy in health information systems. The study includes an introduction, three chapters, and a conclusion. Background: there are many promising IS projects in Healthcare, which are unpopular or even have been discontinued. One of the major barriers to their successful adoption involves privacy concerns. Objectives: In the study, it is assumed to describe the differences in privacy-friendliness of Health IS functions and rank them on privacy-invasive, privacy-neutral, and privacy-attentive ones. Short Description: The ranging rely on a theoretical understanding of information privacy in the medical context as well as actual users’ behavior. As an example, Microsoft HealthVault is taken for consideration. The privacy-friendliness level is examined in two categories of privacy: offered and perceived. The offered privacy is evaluated based on the instrument named "Logically estimated importance of privacy", the perceived one – based on two instruments as "Number of downloads in absolute value" and "Number of downloads to the size of the target population." Contribution: The work has both theoretical and practical contribution. The main theoretical contribution of the study will be in case of the deep description of information privacy understanding in the medical context. The practical contribution of the study is in case of representation of blocks of Health IS functions ranged by the factor “Type of information”. The study might be relevant for IS providers focusing on development of medical applications, users who have a practice to use medical applications, and everybody who is interested in the topic of privacy in medical information systems.