15 research outputs found

    E-health, social media and the law in South Africa can ethical concerns in e-health practice be addressed through regulation?

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    Includes abstract.This dissertation explores the various legal and ethical difficulties faced by health practitioners and patients alike in the application and practice of ehealth. These include informed consent, the relationship between the doctor and patient, accuracy of online content, confidentiality, privacy, data security and licensure. The existing and proposed legislation in place in South Africa and internationally to potentially address these issues is discussed. The broader question that is posed is whether greater e-health regulation is required in a developing country such as South Africa and if so what the regulations should address

    Toward a Discourse Community for Telemedicine: A Domain Analytic View of Published Scholarship

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    In the past 20 years, the use of telemedicine has increased, with telemedicine programs increasingly being conducted through the Internet and ISDN technologies. The purpose of this dissertation is to examine the discourse community of telemedicine. This study examined the published literature on telemedicine as it pertains to quality of care, defined as correct diagnosis and treatment (Bynum and Irwin 2011). Content analysis and bibliometrics were conducted on the scholarly discourse, and the most prominent authors and journals were documented to paint and depict the epistemological map of the discourse community of telemedicine. A taxonomy based on grounded research of scholarly literature was developed and validated against other existing taxonomies. Telemedicine has been found to increase the quality and access of health care and decrease health care costs (Heinzelmann, Williams, Lugn and Kvedar 2005 and Wootton and Craig 1999). Patients in rural areas where there is no specialist or patients who find it difficult to get to a doctor’s office benefit from telemedicine. Little research thus far has examined scholarly journals in order to aggregate and analyze the prevalent issues in the discourse community of telemedicine. The purpose of this dissertation is to empiricallydocument the prominent topics and issues in telemedicine by examining the related published scholarly discourse of telemedicine during a snapshot in time. This study contributes to the field of telemedicine by offering a comprehensive taxonomy of the leading authors and journals in telemedicine, and informs clinicians, librarians and other stakeholders, including those who may want to implement telemedicine in their institution, about issues telemedicine

    Privacy and data protection in eHealth in Africa - an assessment of the regulatory frameworks that govern privacy and data protection in the effective implementation of electronic health care in Africa: is there a need for reform and greater regional collaboration in regulatory policymaking?

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    This thesis examines and evaluates the legal protection of privacy and personal data in South Africa and across Africa in the electronic health care industry, that is, where medical services are provided to individuals by way of networked technological platforms including mobile telephones. This thesis presents a critical understanding of, and pragmatic solution to, the questions that lie at the intersection of the following: an individual's right to privacy and data protection, cultural disparities when defining privacy, the emergence of electronic health care, the sensitivity of health related data, the need for health care in areas, where lack of resources and lack of accessibility are often commonplace, and the introduction of networked technologies within the health care system as a solution. Firstly, eHealth services and applications are described. Secondly, notions of privacy and data protection are considered. Thirdly, the prevailing legal determinants that form the basis of African and South African data protection regulatory measures are ascertained. Fourthly, selected illustrations are presented of the practical implementation of eHealth services and certain recent influencers within the digital environment, which may inform the future eHealth privacy regulatory framework. Finally, criticisms of the Malabo Convention are presented and recommendations advanced. As there is limited guidance with regard to policymaking decisions concerning privacy and data protection in the implementation of eHealth in developing countries, possibilities for reform are suggested. These will allow a more careful balance between, on the one hand, the normative commitment to providing accessible health care using electronic means and, on the other, the rights to privacy and data protection of the user, which require safeguarding within an African context. In proposing a solution, it is argued that adequate privacy regulation of electronic health must (1) be sensitive to societal and cultural differences in what is considered private, (2) be responsive to rapid technological transformation in healthcare industries, and (3) build user confidence in data protection in this context, to enable nascent electronic health initiatives to reach their potential in Africa. It is proposed that the adoption of an accepted social imperative protected by a powerful triumvirate of ethical constraints, effective legal provisions and regulations, and operational necessities, is possible. Greater regulatory collaboration across the continent is called for based on harmonised domestic and international laws, national policies, and industry codes of conduct that are sensitive to local conditions and challenges

    RegTech and Predictive Lawmaking: Closing the RegLag Between Prospective Regulated Activity and Regulation

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    Regulation chronically suffers significant delay starting at the detectable initiation of a “regulable activity” and culminating at effective regulatory response. Regulator reaction is impeded by various obstacles: (i) confusion in optimal level, form and choice of regulatory agency, (ii) political resistance to creating new regulatory agencies, (iii) lack of statutory authorization to address particular novel problems, (iv) jurisdictional competition among regulators, (v) Congressional disinclination to regulate given political conditions, and (vi) a lack of expertise, both substantive and procedural, to deploy successful counter-measures. Delay is rooted in several stubborn institutions, including libertarian ideals permeating both the U.S. legal system and the polity, constitutional constraints on exercise of governmental powers, chronic resource constraints including underfunding, and agency technical incapacities. Therefore, regulatory prospecting to identify regulable activity often lags the suspicion of future regulable activity or its first discernable appearance. This Article develops the regulatory lag theory (RegLag), argues that regulatory technologies (RegTech), including those from the blockchain technology space, can help narrow the RegLag gap, and proposes programs to improve regulatory agency clairvoyance to more aggressively adapt to changing regulable activities, such as by using promising anticipatory approaches

    Defining, Measuring, and Enabling Transparency for Electronic Medical Systems

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    Transparency is a novel concept in the context of Information and Communication Technology (ICT). It has arisen from regulations as a data protection principle, and it is now being studied to encompass the peculiarities of digital information. Transparency, however, is not the first security concept to be borrowed from regulations; privacy once emerged from discussions on individual’s rights. Privacy began to be vigorously debated in 1890, when Warren and Brandeis analysed legal cases for which penalties were applied on the basis of defamation, infringement of copyrights, and violation of confidence. The authors defended that those cases were, in fact, built upon a broader principle called privacy. But privacy was only given a structured definition almost one century later, in 1960, when Prosser examined cases produced after Warren and Brandeis’ work, classifying violation of privacy into four different torts; it took twenty years more before the concept was thoroughly studied for its functions in ICT. Guidelines by the OECD outlined principles to support the discussion of privacy as a technical requirement. Proceeded by international standards for a privacy framework (ISO/IEC 29100), which translated the former legal concepts into information security terms, such as data minimisation, accuracy, and accountability. Transparency has a younger, but comparable history; the current General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) defines it as a principle which requires “that any information and communication relating to the processing of those personal data be easily accessible and easy to understand [..]". However, other related and more abstract concepts preceded it. In the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996, the Privacy Rule demands to document privacy policies and procedures and to notify individuals of uses of their health information. Former European Directives, i.e., 95/46/EC and 2011/24/EU, establish “the right for individuals to have access to their personal data concerning their health [..] also in the context of cross-border healthcare”. The same did the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) of 1966, instituting that any person has a right to obtain from agencies information regarding their records. These and other similar requests refer to the transversal quality called transparency. Similarly to what happened with privacy, transparency was also the subject of guidelines that clarify its interpretation in ICT. However, no framework or standard has been defined yet that translates transparency into a technical property. This translation is the goal of our work. This thesis is dedicated to debate existing interpretations for transparency, to establish requirements and measurement procedures for it, and to study solutions that can help systems adhere to the transparency principle from a technical perspective. Our work constitutes an initial step towards the definition of a framework that helps accomplish meaningful transparency in the context of Electronic Medical Systems

    Preface

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    E-commerce legal framework for ASEAN: A Model code

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    Master'sMASTER OF LAW

    Watermarking - A new way to bring evidence in case of telemedicine litigation

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    International audienceWhen dealing with medical data sharing, in particular within telemedicine applications, there is a need to ensure information security. Being able to verify that the information belongs to the right patient and is from the right source or that it has been rerouted or modified is a major concern. Watermarking, which is the embedding of security elements, such as a digital signature, within a document, can help to ensure that a digital document is reliable. However, at the same time, questions arise about the validity of watermarking-based proof. In this paper, beyond the technical aspects, we discuss the legal acceptability of watermarking in the context of telemedicine applications

    University catalog, 2016-2017

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    The catalog is a comprehensive reference for your academic studies. It includes a list of all degree programs offered at MU, including bachelors, masters, specialists, doctorates, minors, certificates, and emphasis areas. It details the university wide requirements, the curricular requirements for each program, and in some cases provides a sample plan of study. The catalog includes a complete listing and description of approved courses. It also provides information on academic policies, contact information for supporting offices, and a complete listing of faculty members. -- Page 3
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