“Immediately stop enforcing the Healthcare Data Act”

says 5 healthcare associations

KMA, KHA, KPA, KDA, and AKOM issue joint statement

”Agrees to the purpose of legislation in promoting health with the use of data, but the law overlooks the importance of protecting sensitive information"

Five major healthcare associations in Korea have called for the discontinuation of the enforcement of the Healthcare Data Act.

 

The Korean Pharmaceutical Association (President: Kwang-Hoon Choi), Korean Medical Association (President: Pil-Soo Lee), Korean Hospital Association (President: Dong-Seop Yoon), Korean Dental Association (President: Tae-Geun Park), Association of Korean Medicine (President: Joo-Eui Hong) issued a joint statement on the 23rd criticizing the government's enforcement of the 'Act on the Promotion of Digital Healthcare and Utilization of Healthcare Data.’

The associations criticized, “From the 23rd of last month, the 5 associations had asked the government to consult on the details related to healthcare data services with medical and pharmaceutical associations under the premise that ‘healthcare services should be designed around public safety and health rather than from an economical or commercial point of view.’ However, the Ministry of Health and Welfare has been pursuing legislation of the Act from an economic and commercial perspective without any prior consultation.” In other words, the associations agree on the purpose of the legislation in promoting public health and contributing to improving the quality of life.

 

However, the issue is in how the actual act overlooks the importance of healthcare data, which is highly sensitive information, and the need to manage it more strictly than any other information.

 

The associations pointed out, “What’s most important is to ensure that the primary essential element of healthcare - protecting the life and health of the people – is not infringed by secondary by-products such as promotion of the industry in the course of applying digital technology.

 

However, the MOHW is allowing sensitive data, not only the public’s diagnosis results, treatment history but also genetic information and life-related information to be leaked outside of healthcare institutions based on individual intent without supervision from healthcare institutions.” They added, “This goes to show that the measures for the safe use of healthcare data that had been discussed in-depth in the health, medical, and pharmaceutical industry are not being reflected at all in the legislation.

 

Although medical information is sensitive information that requires the highest level of security, the government plans to transmit it to a private company without obtaining consent from healthcare institutions, which are in charge of producing and managing such clinical medical information, in an electronic format that is vulnerable to hacking, etc.” Also, the associations explained that the act contradicts other laws including the Medical Service Act, Bioethics and Safety Act, Personal Information Protection Act, Copyright Act, Data Industry Act, etc., and therefore may likely cause national confusion.

 

The associations said, “In conclusion, we agree with the legislative purpose of contributing to the improvement of national health and quality of life and fostering the digital and biohealth industry, but as the legislation and institutionalization of a system that emphasizes industry promotion over public value and disregards the issues of safety and efficacy, poses a serious threat to public health and protection of personal information.

 

Therefore we strongly oppose to the enactment of the law and request the following 4 conditions be met to guarantee the rights of healthcare data generators, ensure fair value evaluation and protection of personal information, and minimize infringement on the public’s right to health.” The four conditions suggested by the association are: ▲as healthcare institutions are obligated to directly produce, process, manage and protect healthcare data, the government should guarantee the status and rights of healthcare institutions as the principal subject of healthcare data; ▲ the government should guarantee a reasonable right of refusal to healthcare institutions against the third party’s and one-sided personal right to request transfer as the current Act only imposes obligations on healthcare institutions and overlooks the fact that a leakage of the large amount of concentrated healthcare data in the process can lead to a national disaster; ▲ the information that can be subject to the right to request transfer should be limited to information provided by individuals to healthcare institutions; ▲the government should ensure mandatory participation of healthcare institutions and representatives of industry types to represent the voices in the field and industry when forming of various national data policy medical expert committees including the Healthcare Data Policy Deliberative Committee, and the Digital Healthcare Policy Deliberative Committee, etc.