The director of the Queensland University of Technology's centre for IT Innovation, Professor Peter Croll, has been named data safety expert for the CSIRO's Preventative Health National Research Flagship program.

Professor Croll will become the third Fellow appointed to the Preventative Health Flagship, which is part of the CSIRO's National Research Program to partner with scientists and commercial companies to contribute to economic and social growth, as well as to sustainability.

He is investigating the security and safety of the CSIRO's Health Data Integration (HDI) project. The HDI architecture is designed to link disparate data under strict privacy and security, and Croll's project aims to check the security of the systems being used.

Croll, however, said the technology used must be combined with robust security management policies that can be enforced.

"Security and privacy are the top e-health issues causing concern to people, due to the sensitive nature of patient information and potential access to it by a wide range of staff," Croll said.

Dr Richard Head, director of the Preventative Health Flagship said the development of both tools and techniques to determine and manage e-health risks is critical to the success of integrated electronic health systems.