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Healthcare systems are increasingly reliant on electronic records, cloud computing technologies, telemedicine, and AI-based diagnosis. These advancements have changed medical care and accessibility, thereby throwing open a Pandora's box of concerns, foremost among them being healthcare data privacy, said Dr Sameer Bhati, public health expert.
Securing medical records data demands stringent privacy measures. With each rise in digitisation, cases of data intrusions have grown in number and sophistication. In 2023, more than 130 million healthcare records were compromised across the globe, raising serious concerns related to the confidentiality of the patient, consent, and ethical considerations on how data could be used, he added.
The key challenges are Cybersecurity threats, data misuse and consent and regulatory gaps. Now healthcare data, because of its high value on black markets, is a major target for cybercriminals. Hospitals and clinics are often not equipped with an infrastructure, hence remain vulnerable to ransomware attacks and phishing scams. With data becoming increasingly commercialised, there is a growing concern about informed consent and secondary uses that go on without the knowledge of patients. Data protection laws are missing in many developing countries, unlike HIPAA in the US and GDPR in the EU, Dr Bhati told Pharmabiz.
If AI models are fed with biased or incomplete datasets, discrimination may collapse into their diagnostics or treatment plans. Sometimes anonymised data could be reverse-engineered, placing user privacy at risk, he noted.
From an India standpoint, the county has made efforts in digital health by introducing the ABDM and e-health records, but with this comes responsibility towards governance. The DPDP Act, 2023, is definitely a good step, but it needs to have clarity on how it will interface with healthcare-specific data and sectoral laws. Data localisation, consent management, and accountability frameworks are crucial in garnering patient trust, said Dr Bhati.
The way forward is end-to-end encryption, patient-centric model and ethical AI governance. Healthcare providers should invest in robust encryption methods that will help in securing data in transit and data at rest. Consent frameworks ought to be dynamic and revocable, whereby a patient specifies the options of how their data is to be used. Regularly, front-line staff ought to be trained in cybersecurity protocols because often, attacks due to human mistakes are the largest breach of data, he said.
Transparency in AI algorithms employed for diagnosis or decision-making is essential to ensure continued public confidence. Converged international regulations can facilitate control over data sharing, particularly in trans-border clinical trials and pandemics. We see that healthcare data privacy is not a technical matter but it is human rights imperative. We are going deeper into the digital era, and the challenge is to use technology without undermining human dignity. Therefore, healthcare data protection is not a choice but is a building block of the future for responsible, patient-centred care, said Dr Bhati.
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