Cybersecurity Policy Report, U.K.’s ICO Offers Guidance on Health Care Data Transparency, (Apr 16, 2024)
The United Kingdom’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has published new guidance to assist health and social care organizations by offering regulatory certainty on how to keep people properly informed about how their personal information is being used.
The ICO news release explains that the guidance will “help organisations to understand the definition of transparency and assess appropriate levels of transparency,” and it provides practical steps to developing effective transparency information.
The guidance also incorporates feedback from health and social care organizations across the U.K. and is designed to assist any organization that delivers health or social care services or uses health and social care information.
“Being transparent is essential to building public trust in health and social care services,” said Anne Russell, ICO’s head–regulatory policy projects. “If people clearly understand how and why their personal information is being used, they are likely to feel empowered to share their health information to both access care and support initiatives such as medical research.”
“As new technologies are developed and deployed in the health sector, our personal information is becoming more important than ever to boost the efficiency and public benefit of these systems,” she added. “With this bespoke guidance, we want to support health and social care organisations by improving their understanding of effective transparency, ensuring that they are clear, open and honest with everyone whose personal information is being used.”
News: InternationalLegislation DataPrivacy