THE PROTECTION OF PERSONAL HEALTH DATA IN FRANCE AND EUROPE BY THE GENERAL REGULATION ON DATA PROTECTION (RGPD)

Abstract

The development of digital technology in the healthcare field has profoundly changed the issue of protecting patient information by making it possible to store large amounts of data, to access them more easily and to transmit them more widely. Access to all this data is of major interest to so-called “interested third parties”. In order to preserve fundamental rights and freedoms, the processing of personal data was quickly regulated in France, and then in the European Union. Because of their close link with the person concerned, health data are subject, within the European Union, to greater protection than other personal data. The RGPD is a significant step forward in this respect: for the first time, it expressly defines health data and adopts an extensive concept of health data. Taking advantage of the room for maneuver left to member states by the RGPD, France has, moreover, provided for additional requirements for their processing in a certain number of cases.