Mutual Electronic Signatures

近幾年來，如何將醫療資訊系統導入電子簽章使其成為真正擁有合法地位、可以取代病歷紙本的電子病歷，一直都是醫療資訊領域的熱門話題。它帶來極大的經濟效益，舉凡大幅降低醫院管理紙本病歷的成本及其貯存的空間、並且是未來院際間線上即時資料交換的基礎，可以免去病人重覆作檢查的痛苦，節省大量的醫療資源、對於搶救生命及地球的環保都大有助益[2]。
以現在的資訊技術而言要將醫療資訊系統導入電子簽章並沒有窒礙難行之處，反倒是因為醫療資訊系統要導入電子簽章，醫院內部的作業流程需要重新討論及訂定才是比較棘手的工作。
然而，當兩位以上的醫師聯合看診，他們「共同的電子簽章」該如何產生,是一個值得探討的議題，同樣的「共同的電子簽章」的機制也適用在商業契約的訂定上。
「共同的電子簽章」代表兩造以上的雙（多）方對同一份文件或契約有著共同的共識及承諾。
It has been increasingly discussed that how to enable electronic signatures to carry legal weight in place of written signatures in recent years. The practice of electronic signatures has demonstrated its advantages, such as cost savings on the management of consumption of paper and the storage space. Furthermore, it provides the data interchange links among medical units so they can share the necessary medical records for the interests of the patients. By employing the electronic signatures, it surely will be a great benefit to medical resources and the highly concerned environmental problems.
With current modern information technology, the main tasks should not focus on the employment of the electronic signatures, but on the re-arrangement of operation processes inside the hospitals instead.
However, when joint-clinic occurs, how to generate a “mutual electronic signatures” is an issue. The “mutual electronic signatures” also can be used for the establishment of commercial contracts.
The “mutual electronic signatures” represents the consensuses and commitments towards a document/contract among parties.