COVID-19: Putting the General Data Protection Regulation to the Test
The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic is very much a global health issue and requires collaborative, international health research efforts to address it. A valuable source of information for researchers is the large amount of digital health data that are continuously collected by electronic he...
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| Format: | Article |
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JMIR Publications Inc.
2020
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/126116 |
| _version_ | 1826197079405363200 |
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| author | McLennan, Stuart Celi, Leo Anthony G. Buyx, Alena |
| author2 | Harvard University--MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology |
| author_facet | Harvard University--MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology McLennan, Stuart Celi, Leo Anthony G. Buyx, Alena |
| author_sort | McLennan, Stuart |
| collection | MIT |
| description | The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic is very much a global health issue and requires collaborative, international health research efforts to address it. A valuable source of information for researchers is the large amount of digital health data that are continuously collected by electronic health record systems at health care organizations. The European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will be the key legal framework with regard to using and sharing European digital health data for research purposes. However, concerns persist that the GDPR has made many organizations very risk-averse in terms of data sharing, even if the regulation permits such sharing. Health care organizations focusing on individual risk minimization threaten to undermine COVID-19 research efforts. In our opinion, there is an ethical obligation to use the research exemption clause of the GDPR during the COVID-19 pandemic to support global collaborative health research efforts. Solidarity is a European value, and here is a chance to exemplify it by using the GDPR regulatory framework in a way that does not hinder but actually fosters solidarity during the COVID-19 pandemic. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T10:42:09Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/126116 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T10:42:09Z |
| publishDate | 2020 |
| publisher | JMIR Publications Inc. |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1261162022-09-27T14:23:44Z COVID-19: Putting the General Data Protection Regulation to the Test McLennan, Stuart Celi, Leo Anthony G. Buyx, Alena Harvard University--MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic is very much a global health issue and requires collaborative, international health research efforts to address it. A valuable source of information for researchers is the large amount of digital health data that are continuously collected by electronic health record systems at health care organizations. The European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will be the key legal framework with regard to using and sharing European digital health data for research purposes. However, concerns persist that the GDPR has made many organizations very risk-averse in terms of data sharing, even if the regulation permits such sharing. Health care organizations focusing on individual risk minimization threaten to undermine COVID-19 research efforts. In our opinion, there is an ethical obligation to use the research exemption clause of the GDPR during the COVID-19 pandemic to support global collaborative health research efforts. Solidarity is a European value, and here is a chance to exemplify it by using the GDPR regulatory framework in a way that does not hinder but actually fosters solidarity during the COVID-19 pandemic. National Institutes of Health (Grant R01 EB017205) 2020-07-09T15:24:36Z 2020-07-09T15:24:36Z 2020-05 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 2369-2960 https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/126116 McLennan, Stuart et al. "COVID-19: Putting the General Data Protection Regulation to the Test." JMIR Public Health and Surveillance 6, 2 (May 2020): e19279 © 2020 The Author(s) http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/19279 JMIR Public Health and Surveillance Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ application/pdf JMIR Publications Inc. JMIR Public Health and Surveillance |
| spellingShingle | McLennan, Stuart Celi, Leo Anthony G. Buyx, Alena COVID-19: Putting the General Data Protection Regulation to the Test |
| title | COVID-19: Putting the General Data Protection Regulation to the Test |
| title_full | COVID-19: Putting the General Data Protection Regulation to the Test |
| title_fullStr | COVID-19: Putting the General Data Protection Regulation to the Test |
| title_full_unstemmed | COVID-19: Putting the General Data Protection Regulation to the Test |
| title_short | COVID-19: Putting the General Data Protection Regulation to the Test |
| title_sort | covid 19 putting the general data protection regulation to the test |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/126116 |
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