Research and Commercial Use of Healthcare Data

Research and Commercial Use of Healthcare Data: a review of the legal issues surrounding the potential ownership and exploitation of health data

Integral to our work for the National Consortium of Intelligent Medical Imaging (NCIMI), we collaborated with Anthony Collins Solicitors LLP to review current legislation impacting research and commercial usage of health care data in the UK.

The Review

The review provides details of relevant laws and regulations on personal data and individual rights, data processing and intellectual property and is presented in three sections:

Part 1 – individual rights including personal data, special category data and biometric data.

Part 2 – data sets and processing including consent to data processing, legal grounds for processing health data without consent, data anonymisation and pseudonymisation and the impact of the Human Rights Act and GDPR.

Part 3 – exploitation of intangible property including intellectual property, personal data as intellectual property and requirements for sharing and commercialising personal data by an NHS organisation.

What is not covered in the review:

• legal or regulatory changes introduced as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic;
• legal or regulatory changes that might come into force as a result of Brexit from January 1^st 2021; and
• commercial data valuation methods.

Importantly, the information contained in this review is intended to serve as a useful resource and does not constitute legal advice. It should not under any circumstances be considered a substitute for consultation with a legal professional.

We warmly welcome feedback about the review – please send comments or suggestions to: research@futurecarecapital.org.uk