Uncertainty of data in digital health platforms

Following the hacking of Iranian platforms in the last few months, the National Center for Cyberspace announced a new directive in the field of cyber security. According to this directive, users should be able to delete all or part of their data if they wish, but digital health activists believe that deleting data by users on digital health platforms is different from other platforms and can create serious challenges in this field

Attached to Iran digital economy annotation, less than a month ago, the National Center for Cyberspace issued a new directive in the field of cyber security. According to this directive, the National Center for Cyberspace has mandated data owners to encrypt user data, and the user must have the authority to Desire to delete all or part of your data.

But managers and activists in the field of digital health believe that the deletion of data by users in digital health platforms is different from other platforms, and erasing this data can create serious challenges in this field.

Mehrshad Teimouri, co-founder and CEO of Boghrat, says: Data protection laws in connection with multifaceted platforms and especially in the field of digital health are facing many challenges. For example, in these rules, they talk about deleting information, how is it possible to give the patient the possibility to delete the medical file?!

The patient’s file belongs to its compiler and the doctor, and naturally the patient has the right to have a copy of it. However, if the patient can simply delete the file and records of his illness, both the doctor and the treatment follow-ups will face serious problems in the future. Imagine if there is an open bill or a credit and installment purchase, or if there is a problem with social security and health insurance.

Teimouri continues: The solution to this issue is to discuss information encryption and strict data protection rules, not to give the patient the possibility to delete the account and data.

Deleting information may also challenge other platforms, for example, if Lendtech is involved or medical malpractice is discussed, what can be done to complain to legal authorities without having files and records.

On the other hand, in the laws, they talk about providing the data of the platforms to the government, why should the platforms provide the medical records of people with their names to the government, with this move that the rights of citizens are further violated. Unfortunately, the regulation and upstream institutions to the private sector They do not pay attention in making decisions and practically do not recognize us, and this issue causes us to face strange and ineffective laws every time.

The patient is not a healthy person, he needs more attention

Continuing the challenges of the field of digital health in Iran, Teimouri says: last summer, power outages and problems with data centers severely affected businesses like ours. A patient is different from a person who goes to a restaurant or buys goods online, a patient is not a happy and cheerful person.

When the server is down and the doctor can’t read the patient’s records or write an online prescription, both the patient and the doctor are confused. Data Center Afranet and Arvan cloud, although they have a large share of the market, but many times we also lose businesses in On the other hand, online prescribing has brought nothing but trouble to private platforms, and although it seemed like a good law, it was so poorly implemented that all its users have been discouraged.

The portals of two insurance organizations, namely health insurance and social security, are constantly facing outages and problems, and unfortunately, doctors consider these problems to be private platforms from our side, and eventually they distrust the platforms.

The government does not want private platforms to grow

According to Teimouri, the government has no interest in the growth of private platforms. He explains about this: The situation shows that the government does not want private platforms to grow, in fact, at first these two insurers were supposed to remove their portals so that competition in the private sector could take place, but not only did they not do it, but they did it themselves.

With the facilities and data they had and still have, they competed with us private companies and instead of focusing on the sectors that are related to them, they made it harder for businesses to survive.

Teimouri also explains in relation to online prescribing: there has been little effort in the discussion of drug coding, health insurance works with one coding and social security with one coding. Names of new drugs are not updated. The inconsistencies between the prescribing and filling systems have involved the platform patient and doctors, it has happened many times even though the tracking code is registered but the electronic prescription is not registered in the system and the worst is the support situation for businesses like ours.

Support on Telegram channel

Teimouri explains: It’s unbelievable, but all of us digital health businesses write our problems in a Telegram channel, and only one person is the answer to our problems, and it is natural that it is not easy for that one person to follow up and pay attention to our demands and follow-ups, and this type of support is weak. It is extremely annoying.

The CEO of Boghrat says about the solution to these problems: The solution to these problems must be measured at the macro level, in fact, the solution is not in the hands of us private individuals. For example, the issue of drug coding has been going on for so long, and the absence of the main trustee in the health field has made the work difficult.

In our country, the Ministry of Health, the Medical System Organization, the Social Security Organization, and the Health Insurance Organization are four organizations and bodies, each playing its own instrument. However, with this situation, we are standing by our business and we are trying not to lose hope, but the lack of a specific trustee and the unpreparedness of the internet infrastructure and incorrect laws have made the work more complicated.

On the other hand, banning the sale of medicine is another problem that we have not solved. It is still not clear to us what is the reason for this ban. Why can we never follow the right path that advanced countries have followed and achieved.

He continues: In the field of income, they have tied our hands, our tariff is the lowest possible tariff, social security has also given doctors a free prescription system, and some competitors are fooling themselves and offering the value of their products at a very low price, and practically They lower the value of work. Do we have a free service such as employees or free internet and servers that we can offer our services for free?

Teimouri also says about Boghrat’s future plans: With all these interpretations, digital health is growing in Iran and the world. But in our country, the existence of challenges and unpreparedness of the infrastructure has slowed down this growth. But we are still focused on our goal of creating a virtual hospital, and we will have a fundraising plan for next year, and we are also drafting and designing a super app that you will hear more about next year.

Sepideh Mirkarimi, the CEO of Pezeshket in the field of data protection in digital health platforms, also says: data protection in all platforms and businesses has a special importance and value. But it also finds a more special use in digital health platforms. In my opinion, the data of electronic health platforms in the part that helps to continue the patient’s treatment process (electronic file) belongs to the doctor, and the user himself has the right to access the data that was the doctor’s diagnosis and prescription. Like the physical medical record that can be obtained from the attending physician.

The role of the platforms in this field is to create a suitable platform with high security and complete privacy protection. For this reason, in the medical field, the data of both the patients and the doctors are kept under special security conditions, and we are extremely sensitive about this issue.

Regarding the challenges of businesses active in the field of digital health, Mirkarimi also says: Like other businesses, we have suffered a lot from internet disruptions and lack of infrastructure and data center problems, but with all these interpretations, the growth of health tech businesses has been significant and the turning point of this issue is that Due to Corona, the culture of using online health services has also taken root in Iran.

In the first few months after the end of the Corona pandemic, the number of users suddenly decreased, but since this culture had been created in the country, the use of these services became routine again.

Regarding the problems of online prescription, Mirkarimi also says: Online prescription in itself was and is an important and widely used solution that helps the transparency of prescribing and even environmental protection, but it still has problems and is not considered a user-friendly product.

In addition to the fact that pharmacists, patients and doctors still do not have a satisfactory experience in this matter, for example, sometimes system outages and prescriptions not being registered increase the problems.

She continues: Soon the digital health law will be promulgated by the Ministry of Health, which we hope will facilitate the conditions of activity in this field. We and the activists in this field definitely accept the Ministry of Health as the main custodian of the country’s online and offline health sector, but it should be noted that only the Ministry of Health is not related to e-health businesses, for example, the government has also established the Digital Economy Working Group in Other ministries have activated.