Abstract

National electronic health record systems controlled (at least in parts) by the patient are becoming increasingly common. During a pandemic, data stored in such records could be used by health authorities to identify persons with a particular health risk. In this contribution, the authors focus-from the perspective of law and medical ethics-on the question whether such state access to data could, under certain circumstances, be disadvantageous to a person’s state of health in the long run. This may be the case if the data extracted is not only used for the purpose of informing persons, but serves as a basis for measures taken against the will of the individual concerned. This might be perceived as a “breach of trust” and could result in persons opting out of or not opting into an electronic health record system. Such unintended consequences raise concerns from an ethical and a legal point of view. It follows that, even in times of a pandemic, access to personal data stored in patient-controlled health records should be used as a last resort only. While this contribution deals with the legal framework within the EU, its considerations are transferable to other national electronic health record systems.

Full Text
Published version (Free)

Talk to us

Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have

Schedule a call