Communicare Security

Communicare's security scheme is designed to be easy to maintain yet effective. It works on 3 layers: SYSDBA, ADMINISTRATOR, MEDISYS.

Only members of the System Administrators group can grant or maintain user rights and privileges.

Firebird Authentication

All Communicare data are held in a Firebird database. Access is denied without a valid Firebird username and password. The username and password supplied when Communicare is started is passed to the Firebird server for authentication. If authentication fails, Communicare prompts you to try again a limited number times.

This security layer applies regardless of the data enquiry tool used. That is, the same username and password is applicable to Communicare, Windows Interactive SQL or any other third party data analysis tools used to access Communicare data.

In order to maintain your Communicare database there are several system usernames and passwords that we maintain. For more information, see System Passwords .

Application Level Security

Users are organised into user groups. Access rights are granted to user groups.

Access to Communicare modules, for example, Management Reports, Clinical Record, is controlled by the Communicare application and the user groups and system rights.

This security layer applies only to Communicare.

For more information, see User Groups.

Database Enforced Security

Users are organised into user groups. Access rights are given to user groups only.

Access to Patient Clinical records and Clinical Item Type data is controlled according to user group membership.

This security layer applies regardless of the data enquiry tool being used. That is, the same username and password is applicable to Communicare, 'Windows Interactive SQL' or any other third party data analysis tools used to access Communicare data.

This scheme allows specific users to view sensitive data, for example, STD results, whilst hiding the same data from other users.

For more information, see User Groups.

Other Security Considerations

Refer to the HQBird and Firebird documentation for further information about securing Firebird. Particular attention should be paid to restricting access to:
  • Firebird backup and backup media, so that unauthorised users cannot restore their own copies of Communicare data.
  • The folder where the Communicare database resides.
  • Firebird folders, usually C:\\HQbird.
  • The server temporary file folder, usually the TMP environment variable defines where Firebird stores temporary files.