Appraising information security rituals in primary care medical practice

Primary care medical practice is an area that critically underestimates security risk in relation to e1ectronic information. This is significant as most general practices in Australia are recording clinical records, full or partial, by electronic means. The push for increased connectivity and communication brings increased security risk. Research indicates that there is a lack of awareness in Australian general practice of the risks and issues associated with information security of medical data. This paper discusses the approach taken to investigating this deficiency using action research. Further there is a discussion of how current security practices can be examined using definitive categorisation of factors that influence security practices.