NIL on medical data

The report was presented Monday by representatives of the Central Center for Research, Innovation and Education at the Supreme Medical Council and the NIL Network of Physician Innovators. It is intended, as explained by the president of the Supreme Medical Council Lukasz Jankowski, to be a starting point (and at the same time a substantive expert voice) for debate with decision-makers. - Listening to the expectations of the Ministry and also the expectations of physicians, we want to be a substantive partner, but also remain a substantive reviewer where needed. The topic of medical data is one we cannot run away from due to the events of recent months," Jankowski stressed. These events are, on the one hand, the scandal with the disclosure of sensitive information about a patient (doctor) by Health Minister Adam Niedzielski (which ended with his resignation and current, probable, legal problems) but also the hacking attack on a large medical company, which resulted in the disclosure of data (including medical data) of customers.

These events, as the director of COBIK NIL, Dr. n med. Artur Drobniak, stressed, show that medical data is not an abstract topic and the issue of its security should concern everyone, because everyone is affected by this topic. Representatives of the Medical Council stressed that already a year ago - and thus unrelated to so-called current events - the Medical Chamber established a working group on medical data, which is made up of institutional partners dealing with medical data and lawyers. The report that resulted from the work of this group was subjected to public consultation.

The authors of the report emphasize that changes of a systemic nature are needed, and point out that the coming years will be a time to develop a common approach to the use of data (including medical data) at the EU level. We must, Dr. Drobniak said, be prepared for this - European solutions are designed at a certain level of generality and each country must implement them, taking into account the reality. Therefore, according to doctors, the area of medical data should already become a separate area of public policy in health care. One of the demands is to separate an inter-ministerial team for medical data (the ministries of health, digitization and science and higher education, with the leading role of the health ministry), another is to prepare a draft law on medical data. However, it should be created close to practitioners - otherwise it will not affect, change or improve reality.