Belgium consults on opt-in vs opt-out
- 19 October 2010
The Belgian national eHealth platform is calling for views on whether patient privacy and exchange of data should be governed by an ‘opt-in or opt-out’ approach on data be held on the system.
A consultation is now underway on whether the platform should be set-up on an opt-in system, in which the informed consent of the patient is required prior to communicating the data; or an opt-out system, where the data exchange takes place unless the patients oppose it.
The aim of Belgium eHealth platform is to ensure that key patient data is securely exchanged between different healthcare professionals.
As part of the project a consultation has been launched, calling for the suggestions and remarks of the different partners and users of the platform, who are invited in particular to indicate clearly whether they prefer the opt-in or the opt-out, and explain why.
The planned eHealth platform is designed to enable the exchange of data within the Belgian community of hospitals and practitioners, and is made up of a series of online networks named ‘hubs’.
The project controls the various exchange networks ‘hubs’ in use in the medical sector in Brussels, in Wallonia and in Flanders; it also ensures that personal health data can be exchanged between the various hubs. The individual hubs then connect to one national ‘metahub’.
The eHealth platform receives technical support from the Belgian Care Providers Telematic Advisory Group (G19). The latter formulates proposals on, among other aspects, the general architecture of the platform.
The eHealth platform team will carefully go through the reactions and will consider them in the final note that it will submit to the members of the G19 working group. Comments can be sent to joris.ballet@ehealth.fgov.be or posted on the forum until 30 October 2010.
