A Study on the Improvement for the Safe Use of Health and Medical Data
Proper use of health and medical data helps develop the medical industry and promote national health. In particular, Korea has a national health insurance system, so a huge amount of information, including health examination records, drug prescription records, and insurance qualifications, is collected from public institutions such as the National Health Insurance Corporation and the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service. It has favorable conditions for data utilization in that it is possible to systematically collect and manage data. However, there are various evaluations on whether such policies to revitalize the use of health and medical data are actually successful. According to the ‘Ministry of Public Administration and Security’s evaluation of the operation status of public data provision’, the level of public data management system was good, while the level of private use support and information quality were insufficient. Data governance is being emphasized to promote the use of health and medical data along with the legislation. This is because the participation of experts and public-private agreements are important due to the nature of health and medical data, and securing social trust in personal information protection is important. In relation to this, we tried to present specific measures by reviewing the inspection of the current health care big data platform and measures to strengthen and improve it in a comparative manner. The Policy Deliberation Committee within these platforms is stipulated as a directive and is in charge of deliberation on not only policy deliberation but also research purposes and de-identification measures. It was proposed to legalize the basis for the composition of the Policy Deliberation Committee, focus its functions on policy decision-making, and to specialize in de-identification judgment by establishing a separate professional deliberation agency. As an organization dedicated to judging the de-identification of health and medical data, a plan was proposed to establish governance for professional deliberation of health and medical data and to establish a deliberation committee to deliberate on the adequacy of de-identification. The National Health Insurance Service, the National Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service, the Korea Health Industry Promotion Agency, and the National Cancer Center, which are currently combined specialized institutions, can supplement de-identification deliberations. The governance of such health and medical data review can provide policy advice to the Policy Deliberation Committee within the health and medical data platform.