7 GDPR pitfalls to avoid in healthcare

GDPR applied to the healthcare sector: Discover the 7 pitfalls to ensure your GDPR compliance as a healthcare organization or professional.

In a highly exposed sector where sensitive health data is constantly being processed, it is crucial to avoid certain common pitfalls to ensure the serene development of services, avoid any data leakage and thus avoid any sanctions.

Discover through this article 7 pitfalls that should be avoided at all costs. Let's unpack together the challenges you face as a healthcare professional or organization to ensure data security and GDPR compliance.

Refrain from processing personal data in order to avoid GDPR compliance.

 Avoiding processing personal data in order to avoid GDPR compliance is a common mistake when launching services in the healthcare field. Many startups are trying to get around this constraint by using data pseudonymization, avoiding cross-referencing and keeping the information requested from patients to a minimum.

However, this is not the right approach, as it often leads to incomplete services that are difficult to upgrade. In reality, even seemingly innocuous elements such as a user's IP address already constitute personal data. It therefore makes more sense from the outset to comply directly with the GDPR and thus use personal data legally. This approach ensures the legality of every data processing operation, enabling the serene development of the service.

Not integrating GDPR compliance into your roadmap early enough

📋 It's essential to build GDPR compliance into your roadmap, right from the start, for multiple reasons :

• This makes it easier to make the right choices for your services and tools.
• Improves compliance through audits and Data Protection Impact Assessments (DPIAs)
• Support in finding your first service providers and building trusting relationships.

By integrating GDPR compliance into your roadmap ahead of time, you produce the required documents and establish compliance in its entirety (processes, compliant tools, user information, consents...).

Losing opportunities to work with hospitals or other organizations due to non-compliance

🔥 " GDPRnon-compliance" can result in the loss of opportunities to work with healthcare players. Hospitals and similar organizations are extremely sensitive to the protection of their patients' data. If an organization or healthcare professional is not GDPR, this raises concerns about the security of personal data.

Your company's partnerships with healthcare institutions can be jeopardized if data protection standards are not respected. The loss of these opportunities can not only affect business, but also damage reputation, a crucial element in healthcare.

Do not store personal data on an HDS server

👀 This is a trap that must be avoided above all else. In fact, HDS servers are mandatory for healthcare companies and organizations that host and process healthcare data.

While HDS servers cost more, they are above all necessary to ensure GDPR compliance, reduce the risks of data leakage so prevalent in healthcare organizations and prove compliance to its various partners.

HDS servers require HDS certification, which plays a key role in guaranteeing the security of healthcare data hosting. This certification must meet certain requirements, such as enhanced authentication, penetration testing and consent forms.

Traditional service providers such as OVH, AWS and Google offer HDS-compliant servers in the healthcare sector for storing, processing and transmitting the most sensitive data in the cloud.

Do not ask for consent when collecting data

📚 This is a classic pitfall that renders data unusable for medical research or other services, unless strictly anonymized, thus complicating subsequent steps to request consent.

People (patients, participants in medical research, etc.) whose health data is collected (name, social security number, medical history, illnesses, treatment, test results, treatments, disability, etc.) have rights, including the right tobe informed.

The data controller must therefore take appropriate measures to inform the data subjects, as well as obtaining their consent when the data is collected. 

Consent allows data subjects to :

• understand how their data will be processed
• choose without constraint whether or not to accept these treatments
• freely change your mind

To do this, controllers need to collect consent, in particular with a consent form. See Dipeeo's sample consent form

Care when collecting data in the healthcare sector is essential. By avoiding the trap of not asking for consent in the first place, healthcare organizations can preserve the value of data, foster research, deliver services in a compliant manner and prove their GDPR compliance in the event of an audit.

Not controlling your processors

🏢 Healthcare companies are increasingly calling on processors to handle data on their behalf, such as data hosts. In most cases, they call on service providers to act as processors. This involves processing personal data, which entails compliance and data security risks.

You need to take the time to check your processor's level of compliance, in particular by carrying out an audit. This audit will ensure that the processor complies with legal provisions, be transparent, reduce the risk of data leakage and build trust.

Data controllers must ensure that they are well prepared for this audit, and that it covers all aspects of data protection.

As a healthcare organization or healthcare professional, you must enter into a processor contract that complies with the requirements of the GDPR. Indeed, the GDPR stipulates that the contract binding the controller and its processor must provide for a certain number of protections and commitments on the part of the processor. The GDPR requires the processor to make available to the controller the information enabling it to carry out the necessary checks.

Do not appoint a DPO

🎯 Appointing a DPO, whether internal or external externalis mandatory if you process health data.

The DPO's role is to manage all your GDPR compliance and to be the point of contact for authorities and partners (including clients, hospitals...) on matters involving the exchange of personal data, particularly health data. It is he who will negotiate with hospital DPOs, who are reputed to be very tough because they want to avoid all risks of leaks. The DPO will therefore complete the hospitals' calls for tender (the GDPR parties) and will also respond to clients audits. He or she will also carry out DIAs, data protection impact analyses, which are very important for finding out whether your service or tool is GDPR.

Entrusting this mission to one of our external DPOs means you can rely on an expert and free yourself from all the problems associated with appointing a DPO within your organization. This means you can focus on your other activities with complete peace of mind. As an external DPO, Dipeeo handles 100% of your GDPR issues: audit, action plan, documentation, dashboard, full support.