[Management System of Personal Data Protection in the Health Care Field]

In Japan, the law on personal data protection was enacted in 2005. Privacy is a human right, including the 1981 right to be let alone. The need for confidentiality in the health care field has been accepted since the ancient Greek era, and privacy in the 19th century was developed in this field. However, the concept of privacy has gradually altered, especially due to the development of information technology. The author suggests that the guideline for the security of heath information systems of the Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare is very important and information security management with PDCA cycles is essential for personal data protection in the health care field. In recent years, gathering a large amount of life logging or health-related data and analyzing such data for academic and/or industrial applications has become common. Revising privacy protection legislation has become an urgent political issue in many countries. The Japanese Government published their policy to personal data protection act in Dec. 2013. Balancing public benefit and privacy is a major task of future legislation. The author recommends that health care professionals pay attention to, participate in the discussion of, and make suggestions regarding this act.