Navigating the complexities of patient consent when it comes to health data

Even though healthcare is driven by data, it needs patient consent for providers to optimally leverage it across the myriad disparate systems that currently exist. According to InterSystems South Africa, a creative data technology provider, if this consent is not given or properly managed, insights and innovation in the health sector will be severely limited.

This follows in the wake of news last month that the South African Information Regulator has referred the National Department of Health (DOH) to the Enforcement Committee over the issue of personal information the department has collected as part of the management of the spread of COVID-19. The regulator has been seeking confirmation from the DOH since May last year that the personal information collected during the pandemic had been de-identified or destroyed following the lifting of the National State of Disaster.

“Data is invaluable to clinicians who must navigate the challenges of healthcare at a time when remote patient monitoring has become critical. Accessing lab results in real-time to inform the decision-making process and using data to direct care in the most efficient ways possible can only be done in an environment of trust. Suppose those entities collecting sensitive patient data are found to be in contravention of the auspices of the consent given to them by the affected individuals. In that case, the efficacy of the entire system is put at risk," says Henry Adams, Country Manager at InterSystems South Africa.

However, when data consent is prioritised to form a critical part of the entire healthcare journey, the opportunities for service optimisation and improved patient care can be significant. For instance, most prior authorisations requiring clinical and administrative review can be automated. This benefits patients who can get timely care while reducing providers' costs as administration-intensive and error-prone manual processes can be avoided altogether.

Disruption requires a good understanding of the healthcare provider’s goals and clinical processes. Beyond that, gathering, cleaning and connecting data without falling foul of compliance requirements is necessary. Unfortunately, even then, innovation will remain hit-and-miss if there is no interoperability between systems and a service provider capable of overcoming the unique challenges in the South African healthcare sector.

"Access to accurate data can result in enhanced patient engagement and increased revenue for the provider. The better the quality of the information, the better the provider can improve its internal processes. Tying everything together is meeting compliance and regulatory requirements by ensuring the data is used with the purpose of which the patient consent was given in the first place,” concludes Adams.