Medical research and informational privacy

This paper focuses on the processing of medical data for scientific research and the protection of privacy. Attention will be given to the collection, storage and use of medical data for research. First, the international framework, as provided by the Council of Europe's Convention for the protection of individuals with regard to automatic processing of personal data--and Recommendation No. R (83) 10 on the protection of personal data used for scientific research and statistics, and Draft Recommendation on the protection of medical data, based on this Convention--and the European Directive on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, will be described in broad outlines. Within this international context, the relevant Dutch laws, that is to say the Law on Registration of Personal Data and the Medical Contract Act, will be discussed. The paper concludes with some remarks on the (Dutch) Code of Conduct on Health Care Research.