Building trust in health information systems

Abstract

Trust is defined in dictionaries as a firm belief in the reliability, truth, or ability of someone or something. The eHospital Dompe Project has been highlighted as a success story of ICT implementation in the Sri Lankan health care sector. In this issue of the Journal, the project manager of the eHospital Dompe Project describes how they have used Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to build trust in the health care delivered at the hospital by enhancing the hospital workflow and making the hospital work ‘smarter’ (2) . What has been achieved at District Hospital, Dompe should be an eye opener for the entire health care sector in Sri Lanka. One must recognise however that one can do more to build trust in health care. Without trust patients may not access health services at all, or disclose all medically relevant information. Trust in appropriate disclosure of information, referred to as communication trust, is an important attribute of all that goes into building trust in health care. It allows individuals and organisations to share information, to tell the truth, and to admit mistakes while at the same time maintaining the confidentiality of information disclosed. Two articles in this issue of the Journal deal with issues related to building communication trust. In the first article Jayawardena highlights security, privacy and confidentiality issues related to electronic health information systems. (Editorial truncated at 250 words)