Presentation of the Impact Assessment Methodology related to the Protection of Health Data

An online webinar was held on March 9 to present the Impact Assessment Methodology related to the Protection of Health Data. The open event was attended by a total of 416 people. Promoted by the office of the Data Protection Officer, it counted on the participation of the Observatory of Bioethics and Law of the University of Barcelona, as well as the Directorate-General of Health Research and Innovation of the Ministry of Health.

During the course of 2020, the Office of the Data Protection Officer (DPO) of the TIC Salut Social Foundation in collaboration with a multidisciplinary team from the Observatory of Bioethics and Law –UNESCO Chair in Bioethics at the University of Barcelona– developed an agile methodology and a tool to carry out a DPIA in the health field based on the Catalan Data Protection Authority model.  This proposed DPIA has been adapted to the specific needs of the health field to assess the processing of personal data in research and innovation processes.  The result is an agile methodology and a tool that enables a self-assessment that can detect risks in the processing of personal data and its mitigation using plain language; with definitions and examples to identify actors and describe forms of processing, and which allows the measurement of risks to establish an action plan. 

 The presentation of the event by the Director-General of Health Research and Innovation, Dr  Fabregat, and by the Director of the Bioethics and Law Observatory Research Centre (OBD) and holder of the UNESCO Chair in Bioethics at the University of Barcelona, Dr Casado preceded the speech by Dr Itziar de Lecuona, Associate Professor at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences – University of Barcelona (UB) and Deputy Director of the Bioethics and Law Observatory Research Centre (OBD), who presented the methodology and its tool. 

 According to Ms Sara Hernández, Head of Organization of the DPD office and the event moderator, “the impact assessment on data protection is a key element of the current GDPR and allows the assessment in advance of the risks arising from the use and processing of data in order to minimize them”. To this end, and in order to respond to the specific needs of the health field in research and innovation processes, synergies have been generated to promote the methodology. 

 The event concluded with a presentation by Dr Jordi Vitrià. The full professor of Computer Languages and Systems at the University of Barcelona explained the state of the art and where we are heading in terms of the massive use of health data through algorithms.