Trust-based framework for information sharing in health care

Abstract

The use of information systems in the health care area specifically in Mobile health care, can result in delivering high quality and efficient patient care. At the same time, using electronic systems for sharing information contributes to some challenges regarding privacy and access control. Despite the importance of this issue, there is a lack of frameworks in this area. In this research, we propose a trust-based model for information sharing between mobile health care applications. This model consists of two parts, the first part calculates the needed amount of trust for sharing a specific part of information for each user, and the second part calculates the (contextual) current existing amount of trust. A decision about sharing information would be made based on a comparison between the components. Different scenarios of information sharing are provided. Using mathematical analysis, we illustrate how the model works in these scenarios. To provide the ability of comparison between current models and the proposed model, an iOS application as a representative of the model is designed and implemented. To examine the model, a within subject user study is conducted. In this study users interacted with both Apple health interface and the trust reasoning application. Results, highlighted that the proposed application has an impact on the user’s perception and awareness of privacy. The proposed model was chosen as the preferred model by users.