Interview Questions/System Design/Design a Healthcare Records System
AdvancedSystem-Design
45 min

Design a Healthcare Records System

HealthcareSecurityComplianceInteroperability
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Interview Question

Design a HIPAA-compliant healthcare records platform with fine-grained access control, audit logs, and interoperability (HL7/FHIR).

Key Points to Cover
  • Data model: patient, provider, encounter, labs, imaging
  • Interoperability with HL7/FHIR APIs and external systems
  • Encryption at rest/in transit, access control (RBAC/ABAC)
  • Audit logs, monitoring, and breach detection
  • Data retention, consent, and regulatory compliance
Evaluation Rubric
Compliant data model & interoperability25% weight
Strong HIPAA security/ACLs25% weight
Robust audit logs and monitoring25% weight
Meets compliance/consent rules25% weight
Hints
  • 💡Data minimization helps reduce compliance risk.
Common Pitfalls to Avoid
  • ⚠️Underestimating the complexity of HL7 v2.x message parsing and transformation.
  • ⚠️Implementing RBAC without considering the need for ABAC for more granular control.
  • ⚠️Inadequate audit log retention policies or failure to review logs regularly.
  • ⚠️Over-reliance on external systems without proper vetting for their own HIPAA compliance.
  • ⚠️Neglecting to define clear data ownership and data lifecycle management policies.
Potential Follow-up Questions
  • How do you handle patient data deletion requests?
  • How to enable cross-org sharing safely?
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