With the pandemic hitting hard, the realization that India needs to increase investments and improve healthcare sector in the country is sinking in, each passing day. The induction of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in healthcare system is revolutionizing the healthcare system across the globe by increasing the availability and accessibility of healthcare to the patients. Electronic Medical Record or Electronic Health Record is a fundamental pre-requisite in using ICT in healthcare. It is a digital record that integrates patients' health data and is used for the purposes of education, research, referral, and management of data. Many developed countries including USA have a well-established system of Electronic Health Records in place. Although with numerous benefits, many concerns are raised regarding the protection of the information and privacy of the individuals as it includes sensitive personal data. The Government have proposed two new legislations namely, the Personal Data Protection Bill, 2018 and the Digital Information Security Healthcare Act, 2018, to tackle the setbacks of current law. The objective of the paper is to discuss the issues related to privacy and security of health data and analyse the lacuna in the existing and proposed legislations in India. Furthermore, the paper provides suggestions for improvement in data protection laws in India and highlights those measures that can be borrowed from the federal legislations related to health privacy in USA (HIPAA, 1996 and HITECH Act, 2009).
Keywords: Electronic Health Records, Health Information Privacy, DISHA, Data Protection Bill, Aarogya Set
