Electronic Patient Data Confidentiality Practices Among Surgical Trainees: Questionnaire Study

INTRODUCTIONThe objective of this work was to evaluate the safeguards implemented by surgical trainees to protect the confidentiality of electronic patient data through a structured questionnaire sent to Northern Ireland surgical trainees. PARTICIPANTS AND METHODSA group of 32 basic and higher surgical trainees attending a meeting of the Northern Ireland Association of Surgeons-in-Training were invited to complete a questionnaire regarding their computer use, UK Data Protection Act, 1988 registration and electronic data confidentiality practices. RESULTSOf these 32 trainees, 29 returned completed questionnaires of whom 26 trainees regularly stored sensitive patient data for audit or research purposes on a computer. Only one person was registered under the Data Protection Act, 1988. Of the computers used to store and analyse sensitive data, only 3 of 14 desktops, 8 of 19 laptops and 3 of 14 hand-held computers forced a password logon. Of the 29 trainees, 16 used the same password for all machines, and 25 o...