Healthcare data is secure in UAE: Survey

A survey among healthcare professionals and healthcare users in Dubai has confirmed the public trust in e-health services systems offered in the UAE.
The survey titled 'Privacy Protection Laws And Public Perception Of Data Privacy: The Case Of Dubai E-Healthcare Services' also showed that the patients have not felt that the data privacy or security was compromised.
Though there is no adequate law or regulation to specifically address the issue of e-health medical privacy, service providers in Dubai are taking voluntary measures to protect the e-health data, according to the survey.
Carried out jointly by Jawahitha Sarabdeen, faculty of business, University of Wollongong, and Immanuel Azaad Moonesar from the Mohammed Bin Rashid School of Government, the recent survey was aimed at investigating the available e-health data privacy protection laws and the perception of the people using the e-healthcare facilities.
"The e-healthcare system brings many benefits with various challenges," said Dr Moonesar. "The most significant problem is the protection of patients' data privacy."
In the creation or use of e-healthcare, much health information about the patients is stored in the system of various medical service providers, professionals and insurance companies for record and reference purposes. Storing of sensitive information in the e-health system is unavoidable but could lead to misuse of information by unauthorised parties or for illegal purposes.
"Unless deliberate efforts are taken to secure these systems from design to implementation, most of the development achieved to date may not be adopted by many patients," read the survey.
The move toward e-healthcare in various countries is envisaged to reduce the cost of provision of healthcare, improve the quality of care and reduce medical errors.
The researchers also conducted a survey to collect the primary data of the residents of Dubai to understand their perception of the adoption e-health data protection.
"In Dubai, the health sector is one of the prioritised sectors, experiencing extraordinary growth. The healthcare industry is regulated by federal and state level regulation. The Dubai healthcare freezone - Dubai Health Care City and Dubai Biotechnology and Research Park - are governed by additional healthcare rules and regulations. There are a few laws that regulate the health sector in the UAE as a whole including Dubai," he said.
The respondents, who were identified as healthcare users, reported that the purpose of the last visit to the health care institution or clinic included emergency visits (17 per cent), medical follow-up (17 per cent), medical tests (20 per cent), and regular check-ups (40 per cent).
On the other hand, those respondents who were identified as healthcare professionals are doctors (three per cent), nurses (33 per cent), medical assistants (five per cent), dieticians and nutritionists (15 per cent), psychologists (10 per cent), and other health allied professionals (33 per cent).
In conclusion, the analysis of various laws and regulations reveals that the level of protection available for e-health service users is limited in application as they are only applied to the Dubai Health Care City. "This would necessarily suggest that existing laws need to be amended, or else fresh legislation be made available to provide protection for the whole of Dubai," said Dr Moonesar.
"Since the current law on e-health data privacy is drafted after careful consideration of various countries laws on e-health, the provisions are similar to the existing laws in many developed countries. Thus, with minor revision, it will be possible to extend the Health Data Protection Regulation No. 7 of 2008 to cover all health service providers in Dubai, he said.
"The extension of the current law and public policies will provide clear direction to the steps that are to be taken by all e-healthcare providers to protect data privacy so that the ambition of the government to be the destination for medical tourism could be achieved quickly," he added.
asmaalizain@khaleejtimes.com