{"id":3093,"date":"2022-10-26T13:55:52","date_gmt":"2022-10-26T13:55:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/regtechafrica.com\/healthcare\/?p=3093"},"modified":"2022-10-26T13:55:52","modified_gmt":"2022-10-26T13:55:52","slug":"africa-health-data-privacy-and-data-sharing-are-possible-in-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/regtechafrica.com\/healthcare\/africa-health-data-privacy-and-data-sharing-are-possible-in-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Africa: Health data privacy and data sharing are possible in Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n\n
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Broadreach<\/span> Group panel discussion with the Africa CDC and Palladium Group unpacks the risks and responsibilities for health data protection and sharing in Africa<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

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When it comes to the protection of personal health data in Africa, governments and regions have a clear responsibility to protect their citizens. Especially in the era of rapidly proliferating personal data and nefarious actors wanting to access it. However, this must be balanced against the importance and value of sharing vital health data across platforms and geographies to manage the global spread of infectious diseases as travel increases following the pandemic. The good news is that these seemingly conflicting priorities need not be an either\/or situation: smart policies, thoughtful frameworks and underlying technologies can enable both data privacy and data sharing.<\/span>
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\n<\/span>This was the consensus in the <\/span>BroadReach<\/span> Group\u2019s recent Q&A webinar about the thorny topic of Health Data and Security in Africa, to mark October\u2019s Cybersecurity Awareness Month. The webinar covered the importance of health data ownership, data protection vs data sharing, and data residency, including personal ownership of health data, and public and private organisations\u2019 challenges and responsibilities in keeping it safe and secure.\u00a0<\/span>
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\n<\/span>Ruan<\/span> Viljoen (<\/span>https:\/\/bit.ly\/3FfUcxJ<\/span><\/a>), Chief Technology Officer at the <\/span>BroadReach<\/span> Group led the discussion with <\/span>Dr.<\/span>\u00a0Farley R. Cleghorn (<\/span>https:\/\/bit.ly\/3VXuyDT<\/span><\/a>), Global Head of Health Practice at the Palladium Group and\u00a0<\/span>Dr.<\/span> Justin Maeda (<\/span>https:\/\/bit.ly\/3N6laJY<\/span><\/a>), Principal Regional Collaborating <\/span>Centers<\/span> (RCC) Coordinator at the Africa <\/span>Center<\/span> for Disease Control (CDC), to explore the challenges from multiple angles. The session took the form of a Q&A with audience members \u2013 comprised of health and program leaders from around the continent – posting their central challenges to the experts for live discussion and debate. The <\/span>BroadReach<\/span> Group is a social enterprise that focuses on delivering health equity.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>
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\nKey <\/span>takeouts<\/span> from the webinar:<\/span>
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\n<\/span>1.<\/span>\u00a0Privacy of health information is a fundamental human right<\/span><\/b>
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\n<\/span>\u201cHealth data is the most sensitive personal data we can store and warrants an even stricter duty of care,\u201d Viljoen said in his opening remarks. \u201cWe should not put individuals in a position where they should have to trade their privacy in order to receive good healthcare.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>
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\n<\/span>\u201cGovernments are the custodians of the human rights of their people and therefore have the primary responsibility to protect their citizens\u2019 data, but the issue is complex and a multi-sectoral approach is needed,\u201d said <\/span>Dr.<\/span> Maeda. One of the ways that governments could protect their citizens is by disaggregating or de-identifying their health data, to make it impersonal and unidentifiable to third parties.<\/span>
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\n<\/span>2.<\/span>\u00a0Cyber-security becomes more important in healthcare as attacks increase\u00a0<\/span><\/b>
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\n<\/span>\u201cWe\u2019ve seen a year-on-year rise in attacks on organisations in terms of the number of attacks and successful data breaches where data is exfiltrated and sold on the black market. <\/span>Attackers are quite patient and look around – recent studies show that it takes organisations an average of 271 days before they detect that they have been breached, and another 70-odd <\/span>days<\/span> to rectify the situation. <\/span>So<\/span> you\u2019re looking at the better part of a year before you can return to normality,\u201d said Viljoen. This does not only lead to reputational and financial damage, but also interferes with service delivery, which is detrimental in the healthcare setting, he said.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>
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\n<\/span>Three important international standards are setting international best practice for the protection of general personal information and personal health information: the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) (<\/span>https:\/\/gdpr-info.eu\/<\/span><\/a>) in Europe, the\u00a0Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) (<\/span>https:\/\/bit.ly\/3W2LAjV<\/span><\/a>) in the USA and the private sector-led\u00a0HITRUST\u00a0(<\/span>https:\/\/bit.ly\/3zjiNxE<\/span><\/a>) Alliance.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>
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\n<\/span>One of the technologies that can make the sharing of data safer is tokenization, because tokens are much less valuable to attackers than real data, said Viljoen.<\/span>
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\n<\/span>3.<\/span>\u00a0Consumer data is an evolving responsibility\u00a0<\/span><\/b>
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\n<\/span>\u201cPersonal data sets on everything about the individual are evolving. We need to embrace it because it\u2019s not going away,\u201d said <\/span>Dr.<\/span> Cleghorn. \u201cIndividuals need to take control of their health data. You should assume you have a right to that information, that you can control your information, and that you can use it for your own benefit.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>
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\n<\/span>Viljoen agreed: \u201cWe have more data points on every aspect of the individual than ever before, and this will just exponentiate over the next few years. This can be very good for tailored individual healthcare, but the data must be used ethically and safely.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>
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\n<\/span>\u201cWe can learn from other industries such as fintech and payments, which have been the target of cybercrime for decades. They use tools like tokenization, disaggregation and deidentification of data to make the sharing of sensitive personal data much safer,\u201d said Viljoen. \u201cI don\u2019t think we should try to solve this as the health industry on our own – we need to get together as a collective and share solutions.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>
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\n<\/span>4.<\/span>\u00a0African countries are starting to develop and collaborate on data regulations\u00a0<\/span><\/b>
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\n<\/span>While the 55 member states of the African Union all differ in terms of how extensive their data policies and standards are, the Africa CDC is working to set common minimum standards for the collection, storage, management, protection and transmission of data within the African Union. The \u201cHealth Information Exchange Policy and Standard\u201d is currently being formulated, and once it is signed by the various heads of states, the Africa CDC will assist individual countries in attaining those minimum standards through policies and technology solutions.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>
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\n<\/span>Dr.<\/span> Maeda said safe inter-continental data sharing was especially important considering the increased mobility of people. \u201cTo put it into perspective, one person can now be on five continents in one day, so diseases can spread fast.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>
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\n<\/span>But while data sharing was important for public health management reasons, the protection of data was important for individuals. \u201cWhile governments have the first responsibility to protect their citizens\u2019 data rights, other partners such as the African Union, the United <\/span>Nations, non-governmental organisations and the private sector all need to play their part to ensure that protection happens. Health development organisations need to build data security into their development practice,\u201d said Maeda.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>
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\n<\/span>Dr.<\/span> Cleghorn said it was important to have regional and Africa-wide agreements to protect the right to privacy, the right to protected health information, and setting up the guardrails for how information is shared. \u201cThe broad availability of mobile platforms has made this much more important and urgent. We need rapid access to health information in the hands of the consumer.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>
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\n<\/span>5.<\/span>\u00a0Where the data resides is not the be-all and end-all of data security\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/b>
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\n<\/span>When it comes to data residency one cannot say that data is safer in the cloud or on premises. It depends on numerous factors and in many cases a hybrid hosting environment makes the most sense, said Viljoen. The same principle applies to open-source versus closed-source, where the choice for each organisation depends on its circumstances and responsibilities. \u201cThere is no right or wrong. What is important is that the solutions you use are fit for purpose, that the data is used with consent, that a data policy is in place, that all regulations are applied, and if possible, that the data is encrypted to make it useless to third parties.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>
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\n<\/span>6.<\/span>\u00a0Ecosystem mapping can be useful in the management of data\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/b>
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\n<\/span>\u201cIf you do an ecosystem map, you should be able to describe all the components of data generation, data storage, data retrieval and data use, and that becomes a virtuous cycle,\u201d said <\/span>Dr.<\/span> Cleghorn. \u201cMany countries are at different points in this journey and they can learn from each other\u2019s successes and mistakes. But to do this, we need platforms for sharing information, to help others achieve their goals. Learning to map your data ecosystem and stakeholders, from others who have done it before, can be a very valuable exercise.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>
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\n<\/span>He also cautioned that personal information such as sexual orientation may be benign in one setting and dangerous in another, and therefore it was important to understand the data security requirements at different levels of data, especially in terms of sensitive data.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>
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\n<\/span>Dr.<\/span> Cleghorn continued: \u201cWe are going to be generating more and more data about all aspects of people\u2019s lives. To manage this, we have to take an ecosystem approach and think of all the levels of data security that need to be applied. We have to understand the ecosystem better wherever we work.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>
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\n<\/span>A recording of the webinar can be watched\u00a0here (<\/span>https:\/\/bit.ly\/3sySn7i<\/span><\/a>)<\/span>.<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

About <\/span>BroadReach<\/span> Group and Vantage Health Technologies:<\/span>
\n<\/span>BroadReach<\/span> Group is a group of social impact businesses focused on harnessing innovation and technology to\u00a0empower\u00a0human action. Since 2003 <\/span>BroadReach<\/span>\u00a0Group has worked in over 30 countries to support governments, international NGOs, public and private sector\u00a0to\u00a0improve health outcomes for\u00a0their populations.\u00a0In South Africa alone, during the COVID-19 period <\/span>BroadReach<\/span> supported two South African provinces\u00a0to\u00a0oversee and manage their COVID-19 outbreaks over a population of 15 million people.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>
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\n<\/span>Vantage Health Technologies – a <\/span>BroadReach<\/span> Group company, created the Vantage platform <\/span>which\u00a0uses\u00a0Artificial Intelligence\u00a0(AI)\u00a0and analytics to provide health leaders and workers with personalised data insights\u00a0and step-by-step next best actions to guide impact\u00a0at scale. The combination\u00a0AI\u00a0and\u00a0human action\u00a0makes true health equity.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>
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\n<\/span>For more information visit\u00a0<\/span>www.BroadReachcorporation.com<\/span><\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>www.VantageHealth.Tech<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

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