COVID-19: Putting the General Data Protection Regulation to the Test
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document.pdf
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53.52 KB
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Adobe PDF
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Author(s)
McLennan, Stuart
Celi, Leo Anthony G.
Buyx, Alena
Date Issued
May 2020
Journal
JMIR Public Health and Surveillance
Publisher
JMIR Publications Inc.
Citation
McLennan, Stuart et al. "COVID-19: Putting the General Data Protection Regulation to the Test." JMIR Public Health and Surveillance 6, 2 (May 2020): e19279 © 2020 The Author(s)
Version
Final published version
Abstract
The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic is very much a global health issue and requires collaborative, international health research efforts to address it. A valuable source of information for researchers is the large amount of digital health data that are continuously collected by electronic health record systems at health care organizations. The European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will be the key legal framework with regard to using and sharing European digital health data for research purposes. However, concerns persist that the GDPR has made many organizations very risk-averse in terms of data sharing, even if the regulation permits such sharing. Health care organizations focusing on individual risk minimization threaten to undermine COVID-19 research efforts. In our opinion, there is an ethical obligation to use the research exemption clause of the GDPR during the COVID-19 pandemic to support global collaborative health research efforts. Solidarity is a European value, and here is a chance to exemplify it by using the GDPR regulatory framework in a way that does not hinder but actually fosters solidarity during the COVID-19 pandemic.
MIT Department
Harvard University--MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.2196/19279
