Reading Dr Norwich's letter (Insurance Times 9 May) you could almost hear the tramp of the Luddite boots as they marched on the looms.

Of course, Dr Norwich runs a competitor organisation to Mobile Doctors and is concerned the advances we have made in technology and service provision will further reduce his competitiveness in the market.

I would like to reassure him Mobile Doctors has taken every precaution to make medical records and our website secure. The following are some of the precautions we have taken:

  • All users must be authenticated before being granted access to the secure area of our website
  • Users are able to access only those cases they themselves have instructed us on.
  • To view any images (medical records) on the website specific software available only from MDL is required. Without this software there is only a blank screen.
  • The server uses Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) with 128-bit encryption for all communications. This provides secure end-to-end communications and prevents anyone from "packet sniffing" the data being transferred between our web server and the client's web browser.
  • We have a firewall that is tested monthly by an external penetration testing company. We are pleased to say that it has yet to penetrate our security.
  • All access to the website is logged and traceable to a specific IP address. This includes all unsuccessful attempts to access secure areas.

    With this approach I am pleased that Mobile Doctors strategy is congruent with that of the NHS, where most records are now kept in electronic format and where there is a plan to introduce an NHS intranet to share records between hospitals, GP surgeries and pharmacies.

    Nothing is 100% certain in life but our web security makes transmission of medical record safer by this route than by either mail, fax ... or carrier pigeon.

    Paul Crowther
    Mobile Doctors

    Send letters to: Insurance Times, 30 Cannon Street, London, EC4M 6YJ or email andy@instimes.co.uk or fax : 020 7618 3499

    • Topics