[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
[FYI] Legislation protecting personal health data
- To: debate@fitug.de
- Subject: [FYI] Legislation protecting personal health data
- From: Horns@t-online.de (Axel H. Horns)
- Date: Fri, 20 Aug 1999 20:19:14 +0100
- Comment: This message comes from the debate mailing list.
- Organization: PA Axel H. Horns
- Reply-to: horns@t-online.de
- Sender: owner-debate@fitug.de
CORDIS RTD-NEWS/c European Communities, 1999.
Record Control Number: 13496
Date: 1999-08-20
Category: General policy
General Information:
The European Group on Ethics (EGE) is calling for
a directive on medical data protection and a
European patient's charter. The Group, an
independent consultative committee within the
European Union, announced its position on the
ethical aspects of the Information Society for the
first time at a meeting in Helsinki, Finland,
towards the end of July. The opinion will now be
officially transmitted to the members of the
European Commission, after their appointment, and
to the European Parliament when it meets in
September.
The EGE believes that now is the time to put in
place measures to protect personal health data.
Consideration of the ethics of healthcare in
society is necessary, it says, as there has been
an explosion of the use of information and
communications technologies in healthcare, marking
the beginning of a wide range of uses of personal
health data.
Personal health data are the most sensitive data
about an individual, says the group: 'They not
only focus on an individual's medical history, but
also behavioural patterns and possibly sexual
life'. Because this data can be used for a number
of purposes outside of the healthcare sector,
(such as social security, containment of medical
expenditure, statistics and research and
insurance, amongst others) the EGE says citizens
are entitled to legal protection from abuse of
this data resource. Essentially, it says, it is a
human right that personal data should be held
confidential.
The EGE will now suggest that a directive on
medical data protection be established within the
framework of the existing Data Protection
Directive, to address the issues arising from the
use of personal health data, and that a European
Patient's Charter be adopted to cover the main
principles of 'infoethics' in the healthcare
sector.
Data Source Provider: European Group on Ethics in
Science and New Technologies
Document Reference: Based on a press release from
the EGE, Helsinki, 30 July 1999.
Subject Index Codes: Policies; Information, Medi