Home >  Projects > Health IT Security >

Trustworthy Information Systems for Healthcare

Healthcare in the 21st century requires secure and effective information technology systems to meet two of its most significant challenges: improving the quality of care while also controlling the costs of care.  Yet developing, deploying and using information technology that is both secure and genuinely effective in the complex clinical, organizational and economic environment of healthcare is a significant challenge in its own right. This project's multidisciplinary research will drive innovation in information-sharing technology that ensures security and privacy while addressing the pragmatic needs of patients, clinical staff, and healthcare organizations to deliver efficient, high-quality care.

Research

The multidisciplinary team of investigators is addressing fundamental challenges in current and emerging areas of information security, as identified by its healthcare partners, through four research threads:

• Access control in clinical settings
• Mobile healthcare (mHealth)
• Economic and risk models
• Social informatics of IT in healthcare organizations

Team

The team includes three computer scientists, two sociologists, a medical clinician, and a business expert, in collaboration with local hospitals. This team brings deep experience with the challenges of authentication in dynamic environments, the use of sensor technology for personal health applications, the sociology of trust and privacy, the organization and delivery of healthcare, and the economics of enterprise security.

• TISH Co-PIs (l-r) Eric Johnson, Sean Smith, David Kotz, Denise Anthony, and former co-PI Andrew Gettinger Photo by Joseph Mehling '69

  Principal Investigator: David Kotz, Professor of Computer Science and Associate Dean of Faculty for the Sciences
• Co-PI: Denise Anthony, Associate Professor and Chair of Sociology and Research Director of ISTS
• Co-PI: Sean Smith, Associate Professor of Computer Science
• Co-PI: Eric Johnson, Professor of the Science of Administration, Tuck School of Business and Director, Glassmeyer/McNamee Center for Digital Strategies
• Key Personnel: Ann Flood, Professor of Community and Family Medicine, DMS
• Project Researchers

Advisory Board

The TISH team is advised by a board of experts with years of experience in the fields of healthcare, technology, and security and privacy.

Publications

The four research teams regularly present and publish their work.  Papers are available for download below and on the specific research team websites.

• Project Publications

Education and Outreach

The TISH project team is committed to getting its research out to the widest audience and to giving students an opportunity to engage in the effort.  For more information see the project's education and outreach initiatives.

Workshops

In May 2012, the TISH team sponsored the Securing Information Technology in Healthcare: Part II (SITH2) Workshop.  Information on the workshop, including participant bios, presentations, and feedback, can be found on the conference website.

Funding

The TISH project is a three-year, $3M effort funded by the National Science Foundation's Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering, Trustworthy Computing Program

• Award Number: CNS-0910842

Contact

For more information on the TISH project, please download our two-page overview.  Also, please feel free to email questions to trustworthy.infosys.healthcare@dartmouth.edu or call 603.646.0700. 

Partners

This project is a partnership among the Dartmouth Institute for Security, Technology, and Society (ISTS), the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC), the Veterans Affairs Medical Center (VAMC) in White River Junction, Vermont, The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice (TDIHPCP), Google, and Intel.