The law as a 'catalyst and facilitator' for trust in e-health: challenges and opportunities

In 2012, the World Health Organization (WHO) published a report on the state of development of legal frameworks with regard to e-health. The report is based on the findings of the WHO’s Second Global Survey on E-Health, which analysed, amongst other things, the extent to which the legal frameworks in the Member States addressed the need to protect patients’ privacy in the use of electronic healthcare applications. Based on the results obtained, the WHO stressed the fact that although in most member countries there exists a high level of legal protection of the general privacy of health-related information, this does not go beyond the common human right of privacy. There exists little specific e-health related privacy protection legislation and much remains to be explored in terms of other legal safeguards. This article intends to broaden the WHO’s analysis and go somewhat further, exploring not only the challenges and opportunities with regard to privacy protection, but also liability laws, which could have a significant impact on the use and adoption of these technology applications.