Protection of sensitive patient data must be guaranteed

23.05.2023 17:55

At the same time as the discussion about the new legal regulation of the use of health data and the introduction of the electronic patient file (ePA) in Germany, a legislative process for the use of health data throughout Europe (European Health Data Space, EHDS for short) is taking place in Europe. The projects are intended to legally regulate the storage, access and use of health data, for example for research purposes.

The Professional Association of German Psychologists (BDP) sees the federal government's current plans as jeopardizing the sovereignty of those with statutory health insurance over their personal health data - especially in the area of highly sensitive data, for example from psychotherapeutic treatments. These include very private biographical data or sensitive findings as well as data from third parties and consent requirements, for example in the context of test results from child and adolescent therapy. The association and its specialist section Association of Psychological Psychotherapists (VPP in BDP eV) have previously called for data sovereignty for patients in various statements to the Federal Ministry of Health and, in addition to the advantages, also pointed out problems in using the data for research purposes. Here, for example, it is important to rule out that the focus is on economic use.

To raise awareness when dealing with mental health data, the professional association has now drawn up a position paper that addresses the urgency of maintaining patients' data sovereignty and addresses other relevant aspects when introducing electronic health records (ePA).

The BDP emphasizes that data sovereignty is a fundamental prerequisite for the trust of citizens in the upcoming digitization of health data. He calls on politicians to take the legitimate concerns of everyone involved into account in the upcoming draft laws on health data use.

Here Go to the BDP position paper on the electronic patient file in the Health Data Protection Act.