Digital archives and communication highways in health care require a second look at the legal framework of the seventies.
The present state of the art and the state of practice regarding legal aspects of medical informatics are reported. Examples are taken from networking, archiving, and virtual reality. It is derived that the data protection concepts of the seventies are covering only some legal aspects of the application scene today and in the future. Thus a far wider legal approach is necessary. It can only be mastered if engineers and lawyers discuss future trends and derive together a new legal framework for medical computer systems in the late nineties. As computers will be everywhere from childhood to death the key issue is not to just protect an individual but to positively frame an information society.
Rienhoff
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Institute of Medical Informatics, Marburg, Germany.
D003195:Computer Communication Networks / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D016494:Computer Security / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D003198:Computer Simulation; D003219:Confidentiality / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D004738:Engineering; D006296:Health Services; D006801:Humans; D007400:Interprofessional Relations; D007603:Jurisprudence; D008331:Management Information Systems / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D016347:Medical Records Systems, Computerized / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D010355:Patient Identification Systems / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D012637:Security Measures / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D013672:Technology