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A Law Decree introducing the so called electronic health record, online examination record and in general the digitalization of the medical sector is about to be ratified by the Italian Parliament boosting the eHealth sector in Italy
This considerable change provides the adoption of the electronic management of health files through the usage of the electronic health record and the implementation of online booking systems for appointments. Moreover what is more interesting is that the Ministry of Health shall issue decrees providing the usage of mobile devices able to collect medical data, their communication to practitioners assisting patients, researchers and patients themselves.
Needless to add that such decree offers a tremendous opportunity to providers of cloud computing services that might be affiliates of pharmaceutical companies, but also companies active in other sectors (e.g. Google) whose services can be adapted to the needs of the medical sector.
However, given the processing of health personal data (and in some cases genetic data) through such technologies, their implementation will require the review of relevant privacy-related issues already discussed in a previous post and whose impact might even increase if the collected data are stored outside of the European Union e.g. in the case of non-European providers. Additionally, it might be useful to liaise with the Ministry of Health on the implementing decree to make sure that they do not prescribe unbearable regulatory restrictions.
An interesting conference organized by the University of Milan will cover the topic, but if you want to discuss about the legal boundaries to the launch of this project, feel free to contact me, Giulio Coraggio.
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