Role Based Access Control for the Environmental Public Health Tracking Program

The Environmental Public Health Tracking (Tracking) Network is a component of the Public Health Information Network (PHIN) that provides information from a nationwide network of integrated health and environmental data to drive public health action. The Tracking Program is a collaborative effort with local, state, and national partners working together to establish a standardized approach to provide environmental public health information to both the general public and public health professionals. Recognizing that different users will need varying degrees of access to the Tracking Network, a security workgroup was formed to review needs, develop requirements, and design the implementation of security for it. The workgroup developed a Role Based Access Control (RBAC) model to provide a flexible design that allows the program to distribute the administration of roles to network participants. This design reduces the role management burden on a centralized authority and gives stakeholders in the network a high degree of control over the use of their data on the Tracking Network.