A legal framework to support development and assessment of digital health services

Abstract

Background: Digital health services empower people to track, manage, and improve their own health and quality of life while delivering a more personalized and precise health care, at a lower cost and with higher efficiency and availability. Essential for the use of digital health services is that the treatment of any personal data is compatible with the Patient Data Act, Personal Data Act, and other applicable privacy laws. Objective: The aim of this study was to develop a framework for legal challenges to support designers in development and assessment of digital health services. Methods: A purposive sampling, together with snowball recruitment, was used to identify stakeholders and information sources for organizing, extending, and prioritizing the different concepts, actors, and regulations in relation to digital health and health-promoting digital systems. The data were collected through structured interviewing and iteration, and 3 different cases were used for face validation of the framework. Results: A framework for assessing the legal challenges in developing digital health services (Legal Challenges in Digital Health [LCDH] Framework) was created and consists of 6 key questions to be used to evaluate a digital health service according to current legislation. Conclusions: Structured discussion about legal challenges in relation to health-promoting digital services can be enabled by a constructive framework to investigate, assess, and verify the digital service according to current legislation. The LCDH Framework developed in this study proposes such a framework and can be used in prospective evaluation of the relationship of a potential health-promoting digital service with the existing laws and regulations.