NABIDH Identity Management Policy & Its Role in Securing HIE

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Identity Management Policy

DHA’s NABIDH platform has brought in an era of healthcare that opens a whole new set of opportunities for better care delivery and improved health outcomes. By unifying patient medical records over a central platform for health information exchange, NABIDH has transformed the way healthcare operates in Dubai. A number of policies play a role in ensuring that there is no compromise to the the privacy and integrity of patient health information. The NABIDH Identity Management Policy is one such. 

Why is Identity Management Crucial in Healthcare?

Healthcare data contains highly sensitive information about patients and their personal health. Sharing this information over a centralized platform does not come free of risks. Identity management plays a key role in preventing unauthorized access and misuse of patient health information.  This is necessary to protect the privacy and integrity of health records. 

NABIDH Identity Management Policy- An Overview

The aim of DHA’s NABIDH Policies and Standards is to regulate the use of the NABIDH platform, and ensure safe and ethical use of patient data. Each of these policies has a clearly defined purpose. 

According to NABIDH, the purpose of the Identity Management Policy is:

  1. To define the requirements for a secure system level access and to ensure that all systems and individuals interacting with NABIDH are known through a process of reliable security identification by incorporating identifiers and authenticators.
  2. To establish the categories of users and their respective identity authentication parameters within the NABIDH platform.

This policy is applicable to all DHA-licensed healthcare providers in Dubai. It also applies to all individuals and facilities that have NABIDH-managed health information.

Key Aspects of the NABIDH Identity Management Policy

  1. Unique Identification

The policy requires healthcare facilities to assign unique identifiers for all NABIDH users, including healthcare providers, administrators, and patients. These identifiers may be of different types. For instance, healthcare providers get unique user names, where as the administrators use their employee IDs to sign in. 

1. Authentication

The NABIDH Identity Management Policy requires all healthcare facilities to have strict methods in place to verify the identity of NABIDH users to prevent unauthorized access. This can be done using strong passwords, biometrics, etc. 

2. Authorization

According to the Identity Management Policy, NABIDH users have role-based access to health data. Role-based access control ensures that NABIDH users get access to data based on their individual roles and responisbilities, and only to the extent necessary. 

3. Managing Identities Effectively

The Identity Management Policy emphasizes the need for efficient processes to create, manage, update, and terminate user accounts. This is important to keep user information up-to-date and maintain the integrity and security of the NABIDH system.

NABIDH’s Identity Management Policy ensures that health data on the NABIDH platform is accessed only by authorized individuals who are authenticated using unique identifiers. This helps protect patient health information and enables a secure, efficient, and compliant system where providers can deliver better health outcomes, and patients get to experience enhanced healthcare.