Data Protection and Health Care Information Systems: Where is the Balance?

Health care information systems provide crucial advantages for the improvement of health systems. The harmonization of international policies creates new opportunities to interleave such systems on a global scale. However, technical challenges have to be confronted with existing privacy regulations. Both the European Union (EU) and the United States (US) have attempted to reconcile the rights of individuals with those of society through specific legislation. However, an optimal balance is yet to be realized. New methods to comply with the existing legal frameworks are needed. Privacy by design and privacy performance assessment used in the BIRO and EUBIROD projects represent ways to respond to this challenge. A joint action at both legislative and point of care levels is necessary to achieve an optimal balance between the right to privacy and the right to the highest attainable level of health.