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Health data are sensitive personal data that are covered by special legal protection in Germany and Europe. Health data include all data which relate to the health condition of a data subject and reveal information about the data subject’s former, present, or futurephysical or mental health condition.
When health data are concerned, it is irrelevant, which body processes said data. As a consequence, hospitals, doctors’ offices, care facilities, health insurances, pharmacies, research institutions, and even other organizations processing health data, like mutual aid fellowships or foundations aiming at promoting public health and public healthcare mandatorily have to address health data protection in Germany.
As, in addition, digitization is also playing an increasingly important role even in healthcare (electronic patient files, telemedicine, health apps), data protection in healthcare and data security requirements are very likely to continue to increase in the future.
Data concerning the health condition of a person, including data about a disease, treatment, or diagnosis, risks of disease, genetic data or visits to the doctor constitute highly sensitive information. If such data fall into the wrong hands, the consequences for the person concerned may be very unpleasant. Hence, the level of data protection must be very high when health data are concerned.
Due to their high sensitivity, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) protects health data as “special categories of personal data”. In addition, sector-specific provisions need to be observed. These include
Healthcare facilities run by churches are additionally subject to independent ecclesiastical data protection laws.
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In addition to the requirements under data protection regulations, medical secrecy must also be protected.
In order to fulfill their responsibilities in terms of data privacy in healthcare, all entities processing health data are required to implement an efficient data protection concept. Given the high degree of complexity of health data protection, we offer you professional assistance based on our extensive practical expertise in the field of data protection law.
Your data protection in the hands of experts! We will be pleased to assist you in designing health data processing chains that comply with German legal requirements while being adapted to your practical needs.
Our consulting services concerning data privacy in healthcare include:
Your contacts for questions relating to any aspects of health data protection in Germany are
Please do not hesitate to contact us. The easiest way to reach us is via e-mail (info@winheller.com) or by phone (+49 69 76 75 77 80).
30.12.2021 - Olga Stepanova
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