J Korean Med Assoc.  2014 May;57(5):405-412. 10.5124/jkma.2014.57.5.405.

Policy and law of big data use in health care

• Park HW

• KMID: 2194883
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.5124/jkma.2014.57.5.405

Abstract

According to Article 17 of the Korean Constitution, the privacy of no citizen shall be infringed. There have been considerable advances in the fields of computers and communications technology in the late 20th century. However, processing large amounts of personal information has caused many problems. In Korea, incidents of personal information leakage have been occurring frequently. To solve these problems, the Personal Information Protection Act was enacted in 2011. The most significant feature of this Act is that it applies not only to public institutions, but also to corporate bodies, organizations, and individuals who manage personal information. However, the Act does not allow the management of personal information for public purposes such as public health. Recently, the European Parliament has adopted a legislative resolution on the proposed European Union General Protection Regulation. This regulation allows the management of personal information for public health, reflecting the opinions of European public health experts. According to Article 81 of the proposed regulation, processing of personal data concerning health is permitted for the purposes of preventive or occupational medicine, medical diagnosis, the provision of care or treatment, or the management of health-care services. It is also permitted for reasons of public interest in the area of public health, such as protecting against serious cross-border threats to health or ensuring high standards of quality and safety for medicinal products or medical devices and reasons of public interest in areas such as social protection, in order to ensure the quality and cost-effectiveness of the health insurance system and the provision of health services. The proposed regulation is an example of the balance of privacy and public interest in the management of personal information. Although the management of personal information is allowed in the public interest without the consent of the subject of the information, all measures should be taken for privacy protection. It is time for Korea to take legislative steps for the management of personal health information for public health under conditions of strict privacy protection measures.

Keyword

Personal health information; Privacy; Consent; Public interest

MeSH Terms

Computer Security
Constitution and Bylaws
Delivery of Health Care*
Diagnosis
European Union
Health Services
Humans
Insurance, Health
Jurisprudence*
Korea
Occupational Medicine
Privacy
Public Health
Public Policy

Reference

1. Constitution of the Republic of Korea. Article 17. 1987. 10. 29.

2. Kwon GB. The protection of personal information and self-information control right. Seoul: Kyungin Publishing;2005.

3. Carinci F, Di Iorio CT, Ricciardi W, Klazinga N, Verschuuren M. The position of the European Public Health Experts Workshop on privacy protection on the revision of the EU data protection directive [Internet]. Brussels: European Commission;2011. cited 2014 Apr 21. Available from: http://ec.europa.eu/justice/news/consulting_public/0006/contributions/not_registered/euphex_en.pdf.

4. Kim SG. Korean Association for Policy Studies. The policy issues of Personal Information Protection Act. In : 2011 Spring symposium proceedings; 2011 Apr 15; Seongnam, Korea. Seoul: Korean Association for Policy Studies;2011. p. 559–579.

5. Personal Information Protection Act. Law No. 11690, Article 2-1. 2013. 03. 23.

6. Personal Information Protection Act. Law No. 11690, Article 18-2. 2013. 03. 23.

7. Enforcement Rule of the Personal Information Act, Ordinance of the Ministry of Health and Welfare No. 213. Articles 9, 12, 14, 15. 2013. 10. 04.

8. Ministry of Security and Public Administration. Application of Personal Information Protection Act to medical institution [Internet]. Seoul: Ministry of Security and Public Admi-nistration;2012. cited 2014 Apr 21. Available from: http://www.mospa.go.kr/frt/bbs/type010/commonSelectBoardArticle.do?bbsId=BBSMSTR_000000000008&nttId=29268.

9. Directive 95/46/EC of the European Parliament and of the Coun-cil of 24 October 1995 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data [Internet]. [place unknown]: EUR-Lex;1995. cited 2014 Apr 21. Available from: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:31995L0046:en:HTML.

10. European Commission. A comprehensive approach on per-sonal data protection in the European Union [Internet]. Brussels: European Commission;2010. cited 2014 Apr 21. Available from: http://ec.europa.eu/justice/news/consulting_public/0006/com_2010_609_en.pdf.

11. European Union. European Commission sets out strategy to strengthen EU data protection rules [Internet]. Brussels: European Union;2010. cited 2014 Apr 21. Available from: http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-10-1462_en.htm.

12. European Commission. Proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the protection of individual with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data [Internet]. Brussels: European Commission;2012. cited 2014 Apr 21. Available from: http://ec.europa.eu/justice/data-protection/document/review2012/com_2012_11_en.pdf.

13. European Commission. Progress on EU data protection reform now irreversible following European Parliament vote [Internet]. Brussels: European Commission;2014. cited 2014 Apr 21. Available from: http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_MEMO-14-186_en.htm.

14. European Parliament. Proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the protection of individual with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data (General Data Protection Regulation): compromise amendements on Articles 1-29 [Internet]. London: European Parliament;2013. cited 2014 Apr 21. Available from: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/meetdocs/2009_2014/documents/libe/dv/comp_am_art_01-29/comp_am_art_01-29en.pdf.

15. Social Welfare Services Act. Law No. 11239, Article 33-3. 2012. 01. 26.