ePrivacy speaking at Digital Health Workshop at the University of Hamburg

Digital transformation and artificial intelligence (AI) are major innovation topics in the every day life, including the health sector. Politicians hope that this will lead to better access to medical care as well as an increase in the efficiency and quality of medicine. The technical developments are growing rapidly. However, this brings challenges that we want to explore from a legal and ethically perspective – a necesary part because the topic of “health” affects everyone.
The workshop will first cover the legislative innovations in the field of “digital health” – especially the electronic patient file (“elektronische Patientenakte”) and digital health and eHealth applications – from a regulatory and data protection law perspective as well as from a comparative law perspective. We are dealing with sensitive data in medicine that must be protected in a unique way. At the same time, the largest possible data volumes are an important prerequisite for medical AI applications to be able to make reliable statements. It is necessary to find an appropriate balance between promoting innovation and patient (data) protection. Legislators have had to face this conflict of goals, for example in the context of the Digital Health Care Act (DVG) in 2019 or the Patient Data Protection Act (PDSG) in 2020. The workshop will evaluate how legislators have succeeded in this balancing act.

Furthermore, we will examine to what extent the use of AI-based systems entails changes in the relationship between doctors and patients. Who assumes responsibility when using digital applications? Who is liable in the event of a data breach?

Last but not least, the use of AI-based applications is highly relevant for the entire health system. Traditionally, this is based on the idea of solidarity. However, the more individualisation takes place through AI applications, the more this idea threatens to be diluted. All these developments need to be legally accompanied and, if necessary, regulated. The considerations are enriched by ethical findings and insights into the practice of digital medical applications.


Lecture ePrivacy:  Thursday 17th March 2:30 – 3:00 pm Prof. Dr. Christoph Bauer (ePrivacy GmbH) will cover the following topic: Data protection and data security certifications for digital health applications. (in German) 
The official lecture programme can be found on our ePrivacy Blog  Your registration for the workshop:Zoom Link Workshop


Your registration for the connection programme is:Zoom Link Anschlußprogramm


Registration by 14 March 2022:to gabriele.buchholtz@uni-hamburg.de oder hering@mpil.de