Open AccessPrivacy protection, health care and quality control
Author(s) -
Bruppacher Rudolf
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
the quality assurance journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1099-1786
pISSN - 1087-8378
DOI - 10.1002/qaj.185
Subject(s) - harmonization , directive , data protection act 1998 , health care , business , internet privacy , quality (philosophy) , control (management) , information privacy , directive on privacy and electronic communications , consumer protection , public relations , political science , data protection directive , law , european union , international trade , european union law , computer science , philosophy , physics , epistemology , artificial intelligence , acoustics , programming language
In the past three decades, patient rights on the one hand, and health care and research activities in health services on the other hand, have experienced unprecedented development. Requirements of privacy protection, particularly the restrictions on ‘secondary analysis’ of health data, have become a problem in an increasingly complex health care environment and have become a hindrance to research. Legal regulations have developed differently in different countries. Recent attempts, such as the European Community directive on privacy protection promise effective harmonization, at least for developed countries. However, many questions regarding their interpretation remain and they are discussed in this article. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.