AMA outlines essential principles for patient privacy in digital health
A recent position statement from the AMA points to need to ensure privacy and safekeeping of patients’ digital health records in line with international best standards.
A recent position statement from the AMA points to need to ensure privacy and safekeeping of patients’ digital health records in line with international best standards.
On 3 February 2023 the AMA published a new position statement on Data Governance and Patient Privacy. It outlines what the AMA sees as the key principles of health data governance that in turn ensure adequate patient privacy protections.
This is a third AMA position statement that defines the AMA vision for a well-designed digital health system in Australia (following the publication of the AMA Vision for Digital Health and the Position Statement on Healthcare System Interoperability in 2022).
The position statement places an importance on appropriate data governance mechanisms for adequate use of health data, both for health system planning into the future and for research purposes.
It also sets minimum requirements for patient data privacy and calls for a broader national discussion on the privacy protections and ownership of data in the digital health systems, based on the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) models of EU and UK, with transparent limits on how, when, and by whom patient data can be accessed.
