Data protection rules will harm progress in healthcare, say doctors

Doctors involved in vital clinical research have warned that the Department of Health’s interpretation of the new European data protection rules could force them out of research because of a requirement to obtain explicit consent before processing a patient’s data.

A review of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the department’s interpretation of it - the Health Research Regulations (HRR) 2018 — says the explicit consent requirement will be “problematic for most (if not all) ongoing research when the re-consenting of patients is required”.