Data privacy in medicine

PUBLISHED ON: https://www.boldsky.com/health/wellness/data-privacy-in-medicine-importance-and-regulations-144828.html

Introduction:

Medicine is the most precious branch of science. It is living, real, and gives us the most precious gift of health. Speaking of health, ethical health research and privacy protections in healthcare are very crucial.

The policies and technology used to protect sensitive health data for clients and patients in the medical field are referred to as "healthcare data privacy." It applies to both patients involved in medical research and those under treatment.

Healthcare data privacy allows authorized individuals, like doctors, researchers, and fellows to see sensitive patient medical data or protected health information (PHI)

Importance of data privacy in healthcare

There are vital reasons for this:

• Trust

Protecting patient data enables hospitals and other facilities to foster patient trust. Patients will eventually become regular if they trust the doctor, the organization, and the security of all information they provided to them.

Patient trust is critical for medical organizations of all sizes, including large hospitals and private practitioners. It is difficult to provide people with the required healthcare and ensure that they follow up with you, without gaining their trust. The better the trust, the better will be the feedback, ensuing in higher turnovers for the institution.

• Patient privacy:

Patients undergoing treatment for terminal illnesses or subjected to clinical trials want complete concealment of their demographics and the disease. It is imperative, as it also protects patients from any malpractices between rival pharmaceutical and research companies during clinical trials.

• Safety of the patients:

If medical organizations do not safeguard and organize patient data, their doctors or staff members may reach incorrect conclusions, perform wrong investigations, and prepare false reports, resulting in incorrect diagnoses, prescriptions, and other errors.

This can be life-threatening! Numerous cases of death due to the mixing up of records have been reported recently.

• Forensics:

Tampered medical records can mislead police investigations, ensuing in an erroneous judgment.

Healthcare data regulation:

• HIPAA

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA, was the first major measure to protect patient data in healthcare. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (1996), was developed to develop standards to protect identifiable health information and keep it from malpractices. It states that only the patient and a legally notified ward of the patient have access to the data.

• GDPR

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is an EU (European Union) regulation that focuses on data privacy and protection standards. It applies to all organizations within the EU, as well as any institutions that do business with EU citizens like in the USA.

Its concepts are similar to HIPAA

• Privacy in telemedicine

Telehealth or telemedicine is the newest form of healthcare—its medicine from the comforts of home. But it is susceptible to data theft or security issues, as all transactions and communications happen online and remotely. High-security standards and stringent protocols are a must in this case.

Be careful to read a mobile app's agreement policy before blindly typing in information.

• HITECH

The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act, or HITECH, has made healthcare data privacy protection tougher. Institutions covered by this are heavily fined if any protocols are broken. Devised in 2009 to encourage healthcare facilities to adopt EHR, or electronic health records, due to the following benefits:

A. They make it easier for authorized healthcare providers to access medical records.

B. The records don't get stolen, lost, or misplaced. All malpractices that can be done in person can be avoided.

Key takeaway

Data privacy will always be a major concern in healthcare. It must be disciplined, regulated, and protected from imposters or cybercriminals.