Electronic healthcare information systems need to have strong privacy safeguards.
The European Commission and national governments favour e-health both to drive down rising healthcare costs, and to improve patient care.
Data-privacy watchdogs, however, are concerned that policymakers’ enthusiasm for e-health may compromise sensitive patient information, which can be easily copied and transferred once it is in electronic form. They cite the UK’s ill-starred electronic patient database, which has suffered from repeated security lapses, as evidence that governments need to build strong privacy safeguards into their schemes if they want to retain patients’ trust.
The European Patient’s Forum has also emphasised that patients must be confident that they will have ‘ownership’ of their data, and that e-health systems comply with privacy law, if they are to place their trust in the new systems.
E-health encompasses the creation of electronic patient records, using telemedicine to treat patients remotely, and collecting patient data via mobile devices. A report prepared by Sweden’s EU presidency last year estimated that nine million bed-days could be eliminated annually in European hospitals through the application of computer-based patient records, saving €3.7 billion.
Neelie Kroes, the European commissioner for digital agenda, said in March that e-health would be an “integral” part of a multi-annual work plan that she will present on 18 May.
Other large projects have included Germany’s development of an electronic health card, and – at European level – a pilot project, called EpSOS, to develop interoperability between electronic health records in 12 member states.
Peter Hustinx, the European data-protection supervisor, has warned, however, that “the potential benefits [of e-health] can only be enjoyed in practice if we are successful in ensuring a strong trust…and a strong protection of health data”.
An opinion adopted by his office in March called for an upcoming revision of the EU’s data-protection directive to include a “privacy by design” principle, that would require data-protection standards to be taken into account “from the very inception” of new information and communication technologies, including e-health.
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