EU Data Protection

On 11 November 2020, the European Data Protection Board (“EDPB”) issued two draft recommendations relating to the rules on how organizations may lawfully transfer personal data from the EU to countries outside the EU (“third countries”).  These draft recommendations, which are non-final and open for public consultation until 30 November 2020, follow the EU Court of Justice (“CJEU”) decision in Case C-311/18 (“Schrems II”).  (For a more in-depth summary of the CJEU decision, please see our blog post here and our audiocast here. The EDPB also published on 24 July 2020 FAQs on the Schrems II decision here).

The two recommendations adopted by the EDPB are:

Continue Reading EDPB adopts recommendations on international data transfers following Schrems II decision

On 13 August 2019, the European Commission opened a call for expression of interest to relaunch the eHealth Stakeholder Group with a view to supporting the “digital transformation of healthcare in the EU”. The eHealth Stakeholder Group was first launched in 2012 and in its first iteration (between 2012 and
Continue Reading Commission relaunch of eHealth Stakeholder Group

On 17 October, the UK Government’s Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) published a policy paper entitled “The future of healthcare: our vision for digital, data and technology in health and care” (the Policy Paper). The Policy Paper outlines the DHSC’s vision to use
Continue Reading UK Government publishes new policy paper outlining vision for digitizing health care and becoming a global leader in healthtech

On 8 October, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) published a report (available here) setting out the progress it has made towards applying a common data model (CDM) in Europe. The EMA defines a CDM as “a mechanism by which raw data are standardized to a common structure, format and terminology independently from any particular study in order to allow a combined analysis across several databases/datasets”. The report follows an EMA-hosted workshop in December 2017 to examine the opportunities and challenges of developing a CDM.

The report acknowledges that the use of ‘Real World Data’ (RWD) (data relating to patient health status or delivery of health care data that is routinely collected from sources other than clinical trials) has become an increasingly common source of evidence to support drug development and regulatory decision making for human medical use in Europe. However, Europe currently has no pan-European data network, despite the wealth of data generated through various national healthcare systems that provide access for all. Many multi-database studies currently performed are typically slow and still allow for substantial variability in the conduct of studies. Further, there are a growing number of innovative products that no longer align with customary drug development pathways. This may create uncertainty in their data packages required for authorization, and subsequent tension between facilitating earlier access for patients with limited treatment options against the requirement for proactive robust pharmacovigilance of medicines for wider clinical use across the product life cycle (the existing EMA Patient Registry Initiative addresses this need in part).
Continue Reading EMA publishes “A Common Data Model for Europe? – Why? Which? How?” Workshop Report

In the third installment of our series, Covington’s global cross-practice Digital Health team considers some additional key questions about Artificial Intelligence (AI), data privacy, and cybersecurity that companies across the life sciences and technology sectors should be asking to address the regulatory and commercial pieces of the complex digital health
Continue Reading Digital Health Checkup (Part Three): Key Questions About AI, Data Privacy, and Cybersecurity

May 2015 saw a number of developments in the EU mHealth sector worthy of a brief mention.  The European Commission announced that it would work on new guidance for mHealth apps, despite the European Data Protection Supervisor and British Standards Institution publishing their own just weeks earlier.  In parallel, the French data protection authority announced a possible crackdown on mHealth app non-compliance with European data protection legislation.  This post briefly summarizes these developments.
Continue Reading May 2015 EU mHealth Round-Up