Legal Aspects of Knowledge Landscapes in Healthcare

de Miguel Beriain, Iñigo; Borovečki, Ana; Głos, Aleksandra

Social media and new technologies—including discussion boards, social network sites, blogs and videos—may be excellent tools to guarantee adequate patient-focused healthcare or contribute to improving the healthcare system by providing alternative sources of training and surveillance. Their use also raises concern about misinformation and disinformation that cause serious harm to the patient–doctor communication and relationship. Such use might also induce the patient to make wrong decisions based on non-scientific knowledge or even provoke a threat to public health if a patient suffering from a contagious disease refuses treatment due to misguided advice. It is therefore perfectly understandable that all collectives involved are increasingly concerned about the need to regulate these activities in a way to serve the interests of all involved. This chapter analyses these issues from the perspective of the EU. It provides an updated commentary on the EU legal framework applicable to online activities in the digital environment in the healthcare context. We therefore analyse topics such as the regulation and policy tools developed by the EU concerning social networking communities and data-sharing platforms that include the sharing of sensitive information, such as health data, as well as the role played by patient organisations in improving available information. Moreover, we also highlight the main issues and gaps that currently exist and analyse the measures proposed by EU institutions to improve the situation. Hopefully, this will serve to guarantee an optimal development of these new technologies, while preserving healthcare workers’ interests, patients’ health and basic public goods.