DATA SECURITY

The e-pacs transactions concept

Right from the start when e-pacs was first conceived and implemented, the highest priority was given not only to absolute conformity with data-protection regulations, but also to the security of the data and to protection against loss of data in the event of a disaster. Both aspects were thoroughly checked within the context of the certification procedure, and the security of e-pacs was tested by independent technical and legal experts.

Alongside the data-protection aspect, which is extensively discussed in the corresponding sections of this homepage, here we would like to briefly introduce the e-pacs transactions concept to prevent loss of data. The e-pacs transactions concept guarantees that at least two copies of the data are always stored at different locations beginning at the moment when the data is received. The following graphic illustrates the temporal sequence.

Failure Scenario A – PACS suffers total or partial failure:

Problem: In this case, no further data are available from the PACS.
Solution:  All images can be accessed directly via Dicom from the e-pacs Department Server.
 

Failure Scenario B – Storage on the e-pacs Department Server suffers total or partial failure:

Problem: Images which are stored there can no longer be accessed.
Solution:  The e-pacs Department Server automatically switches to emergency operating mode and loads all necessary data from the e-pacs Storage Center.
 

Failure Scenario C – Linkage to the computer center is interrupted:

Problem: The e-pacs Storage Center is temporarily unavailable; very old images cannot be accessed at short notice.
Solution:  The images which are to be sent, as well as the requests, are buffered and automatically dispatched at a later point in time.