Wearables, mHealth Discussed during Panel on Privacy and Health Data
April 13, 2018
How do both companies and clients work to ensure health information remains private in a world of evolving health apps and wearables? It was a questioned answered Thursday, April 12 at American University Washington College of Law’s panel discussion “Health Data Privacy & Security: Emerging Issues in mHealth, Wearables, and the Internet of Things.”
The event was moderated by AUWCL adjunct professor Kirk Nahra, and featured Alaap Shah, Epstein Becker Green, PC; Cora Tung Han, Federal Trade Commission; and American University alumna Madeline Gitomer SPA ’06, Hogan Lovells, LLP. The trio discussed the current legal frameworks and regulatory gaps related to health data held and transmitted through these developing technologies.
“Because there’s such a drive to expand this area of connected health and because these apps are popping up weekly, we have to think about privacy implications. Sometimes it is difficult for the legal landscape to keep up,” Gitomer said. “The collection of this data often leads to a lot of misuse or unauthorized use.”
Shah said there is risk to all parties involved in mHealth – not just the consumer, but for the businesses putting them into market and the hospitals and health care companies providing them, as well.
“There’s no dearth of guidance out there to help determine what types of controls and standards you want to choose,” he said. “By being so convenient, these products have the downside of having a lack of privacy and security controls, which can create vulnerability for any network you plug them into.”
AUWCL’s Health Law and Policy Program has been ranked for the first time at #20 in the Health Care Law category of U.S. News and World Report rankings.
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