As part of the 2nd National Forum on Transparency and Personal Information in Healthcare, Commissioner María Elena Pérez and Jaén Zermeño, Commissioner of the Federal Institute of Access to Information and Protection of Data (IFAI), called for federal legislators to strengthen current legislation on personal information in the possession of public and private institutions, and also to name the authority which will govern this area, an important role which is currently in the hands of the IFAI but this body only has the ability to apply sanctions in the private sector.
At the press conference given at the end of the forum’s inaugural ceremony, the IFAI commissioner states: “I would call on the Congress of the Union, in both the Chamber of Deputies and the Chamber of Senators to treat this issue with the seriousness it deserves. Although Article 16 of the Constitution protects personal information, legislators have not given it enough attention; a preliminary statement has been approved in the Chamber of Senators, which was sent to the Chamber of Deputies for discussion and a transitory article was issued stating that the IFAI will be the presiding authority in matters of Protection of Personal Information until otherwise decided, so for now we don’t know what’s going to happen or who the authority will be.”
Pérez and Jaén Zermeño also stated that over the last year, the IFAI recorded 30 complaints and a fine for violation of protection of information of over 1.5 million pesos. At the meeting with the media, Doctor Jesús Rubí Navarrete, Adjunct Director of the Spanish Agency for the Protection of Data from Madrid, Spain, a keynote speaker at the forum, emphasized the importance of achieving a balance between the law and citizens’ complaints in the cases that can be presented, and believed that this second forum was necessary for the country, after noting that Europe was more advanced in the area.
“It is important to encourage a debate about how best to achieve this balance, I think that the best way to define the rules of the game is to make them clear for all those involved, to make the legislators the ones to set the guidelines and balance the laws and counterbalances and for this reason it’s fundamental that they have the general principles of quality, secrecy and proportionality.” For her part, Doctor Lina Ornelas Núñez, associate researcher at the Center of Economic Research and Education (CIDE), also a keynote speaker at the forum, emphasized the importance of spreading information and increasing awareness about the subject in order to ensure that this sensitive law has all the contributions necessary.
“It is very important to make people in Mexico aware that we have a right to have our personal information protected in which the rights to knowledge and transparency are equally important and that as we don’t have a culture of this, that we have a very good example that we can follow to ensure that the information in the hands of the government or in the private sphere is protected; the issue here is that information that isn’t managed properly may result in discrimination.”
The Presidential Advisor of the Institute of Transparency and Public Information of the State of Jalisco (ITEI), Mr. Jorge Gutiérrez Reynaga, mentioned the importance of properly protecting the data contained in electronic health records.
“With regard to health records containing lots of different information, the issue is not awareness but ensuring that the databases have the necessary safeguards so that third parties can’t access them… these forums can create a proposal that includes the update of personal information, not only for the health record but also the protection of personal information.”
Meanwhile, Doctor Jaime Agustín González Álvarez, Director General of the Civil Hospital of Guadalajara, spoke about the need to achieve a consensus that would unify criteria towards the establishment of Official Mexican Guidelines arising from forums of this kind which can set the rules for the proper safeguarding of personal healthcare information.
The program for the 2nd Forum on Transparency and Personal Information in Healthcare, coordinated by Dr. Cynthia Patricia Cantero Pacheco, General Coordinator of Regulatory Improvements and Transparency at the Civil Hospital of Guadalajara, included two master conferences: “Protection of Data in the Digital Era”, given by Doctor Lina Gabriela Ornelas Núñez, associate researcher at the Center of Economic Research and Education (CIDE) and “Processing and Security of the Health Record (Clinical History) and its inclusion of information technology, a Spanish Case Study” given by Doctor Jesús Rubí Navarrete, Adjunct Director of the Spanish Agency for the Protection of Data.
Later came the panels: “Perspectives on Institutions Using Personal Health Data,” which included the participation of the Civil Hospital of Guadalajara, the Medical Arbitration Commission of the state of Jalisco, the IMSS, the ISSSTE and the Association of Individual Hospitals of Jalisco, under the coordination of the Council of the Institute for Transparency and Public Information of the State of Jalisco, Vicente Viveros; and the panel “The Handling of Health Data with a Focus on Guidelines,” which involved the Supreme Court of Justice of the State of Jalisco, the Health Commission of the Congress of the State of Jalisco, the IFAI, the ITEI Jalisco, the State Commission of Human Rights of Jalisco (CEDHJ) and the Economic and Social Council of Jalisco (CESJAL) under the coordination of Doctor Héctor Raúl Pérez Gómez, Rector of the University Center of Health Sciences of the University of Guadalajara.
Source: Hospital Civil de Guadalajara
Correspondent: Luz Alouette Loza Aguilar.
Photography: Jorge Iñiguez Vallejo.
