“Excessive data protection is only for healthy people”

02.10.2015 10:48

With this pointed formulation in connection with the planned e-health law, the former health policy spokesman for the CDU Jens Spahn hit the mark some time ago and once again fueled the ongoing issue of data protection in the healthcare system. In order to discuss the effects and necessities against the background of eGK, E-Health Act and IT Security Act, the Leipzig Health Forums invited relevant stakeholders to the specialist symposium on September 24th.

The almost unavoidable data traces that arise when using online services can be evaluated in a structured manner and merged into meaningful user profiles. This connection of data can make people's behavior, interests and habits predictable and therefore influenceable. In order to contain this danger, great efforts are necessary on the part of data protection officers.

The laws intended for data protection officers are difficult to grasp in practice. The relevant legal texts, such as the IT Security Act or the draft bill for the E-Health Act, do not provide any concrete definitions of terms for “appropriate data security measures”, “the latest state of the art” or “secure authentication procedures”. The legislature leaves open what exactly is meant by “safe” or “appropriate”, which allows for a great deal of scope for interpretation.

Encouraged with provocative theses Sebastian Vorberg, specialist lawyer for medical law and board spokesman for the Federal Association for Internet Medicine the participants to take new paths and not close their minds to technical developments. Because today's patients would find their way to e-health offers on the Internet even without health insurance companies. In his opinion, the “gray areas” of the legislation that are unpleasant for data protection advocates and which have so far been avoided should be carefully explored and technical and legal solutions sought.

Data protection – a question of perspective

The data protection officer should become the “consent officer” and understand the insured person as a responsible patient. With regard to the existing ban on remote treatment, the lawyer appealed to the audience. There will always be enough courageous doctors who are not afraid of liability risks and would instead take advantage of the new technical possibilities to provide patients with the best possible care, for example in rural regions where specialists are rare. When it came to the keyword “digital health,” he recommended that data protection officers set the goal of creating trust and transparency.

Overall, it can be said that the interpretation and interpretation of laws and, at the same time, the rapid development in digitalization represent a challenge for data protection officers in the healthcare sector. The question still remains as to how transparency can be created and maintained in this area. The symposium participants outlined a vision for the future that in the future, patients will first turn to their health insurance companies when looking for suitable health apps and e-health offers, instead of researching them in app stores. In order to get there, however, health insurers must first find their role in the context of advancing digitalization.

Further information about the event can be found at www.gesundheitsforen.net/datenschutz