Legal Study on Cloud-based Health Information

• Main Authors: SIE JHIH- MING, 謝志明
• Other Authors: CHI -MIN YU
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2013
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/62692872980792588388

碩士 === 東吳大學 === 法律學系 === 101 === With the aging of population, heightened health awareness among citizens and demand for better quality of health care, Taiwan government has been facing the issues of fast-increasing of national health expenses and continuing budget deficits of National Health Insurance scheme. It is not only a burden to the central and local government, but a long-term drain on the financial and emotional capacity for those families in need of long-term health-care for their families. To improve health care quality and slow down the speed of ever-increasing national health expenses, Taiwan government has planned and implemented various projects, including efforts to push for nation-wide digitalized medical record, health clouds, greater efficiency of medical administration, tele-medicine for rural areas, and the value-add programs of tele-care. Significant progresses have been made in inter-connectable medical records, medical accessibility in less-populated areas, and reduce the need for chronicle disease patients to use medical resources that are not really necessary. On the other hand, the evolving of Internet-technology into “cloud computing” has made the application of “health-care related clouds” an emerging trend in the delivery of health-care services. Clouds for tele-health, tele-medicine and tele-care have benefits of faster deployment with lower costs, location-free access of medical resources, integrated support of medical database and resources on a specific medical cloud in the process of medical diagnosis or administration. Besides, cloud computing also serves as a good means to promote self-management and public health by health regulators and agencies. Thus, health-related clouds are critical approach to improve health-care quality and efficiency. The thesis aims to explore and propose suggestions for the potential legal issues when the emerging health-related clouds are operating or to be introduced to operate within the existing framework of laws and regulations in Taiwan. The thesis sets out by introducing the health-related clouds and their application in Taiwan. It then moves on to sort out the applicable laws and regulations in local jurisdiction. By comparing the laws and regulations against related guiding principles or statues made by the World Health Organization, the European Union, and the United States, the thesis focuses on key issues confronting the advancement and adoption of health-related clouds in Taiwan, including the topics of protecting medical privacy, protection and commercial usage of personal medical information, the constraints of existing local laws and regulation on the development of tele-health, as well as the regulation of mobile health and mobile software applications as medical devices.