ELECTRONIC HEALTH RECORD: TAKING STOCK OF THE SITUATION
15 May 2024 · difendersiora
The Electronic Health Record (FSE) is a tool for controlling citizens' bodies, and data collection, particularly genetic data, serves the interests of the large pharmaceutical corporations with which the Italian government collaborates. The Electronic Health Record contains all data concerning medical visits, hospital admissions, surgical operations, prescriptions and clinical tests, and there is also a specific pharmaceutical section listing data relating to the prescription and purchase of medicines. All healthcare practitioners are obliged to feed data into the FSE, including private practitioners.
For those who wish to maintain the confidentiality of their data, it is therefore essential to deny access to the Electronic Health Record. Such access may be gained by other healthcare professionals or—what is most disturbing—by public authorities under the requirements of international prophylaxis, namely measures aimed at the prevention and management of epidemics and pandemics.
There are two procedures to follow.
The first is the deletion of data predating 19 May 2020. This is an option provided for by Article 12 of Decree-Law 179/2012 and the implementing decrees (Ministerial Decrees of 7 September 2023 and 11 April 2024), which may be exercised by 30 June 2024 by accessing this website:
It is not necessary to have a SPID or a CIE to lodge an objection.
Those who wish to use a SPID or a CIE (though it is not required) may use this website:
https://sistemats1.sanita.finanze.it/portale/area-riservata-cittadino
By exercising the right to object to past data, you prevent the Electronic Health Record from being populated with any data generated prior to 19 May 2020.
For subsequent data, it is necessary to revoke all consents to the consultation of the Electronic Health Record. This procedure can be carried out by accessing the website of your respective region starting from this page:
https://www.fascicolosanitario.gov.it/fascicoli-regionali
However, online access is generally only possible for holders of a SPID, a CIE, or those who have activated their national health card (tessera sanitaria). These are, generally speaking, options best avoided.
Therefore, it will be necessary to go in person to the counter of your local health authority (ASL) to withdraw consent to access the Electronic Health Record.
The revocation of consents is governed by Article 8 of the Ministerial Decree of 7 September 2023.
First and foremost, it stipulates that consultation of the record by persons other than the data subject and the healthcare professional who entered the data into the FSE is only possible after the patient has read the privacy notice and provided free, specific, informed, and unambiguous consent relating to individual categories of data. For minors, consent is granted or withheld by parents. A proxy may be appointed to grant or revoke consents. It is possible to exercise the right to obscure data both generally and on the occasion of individual healthcare services.
It is advisable to revoke consents for the purposes of: - diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation; - prevention; - international prophylaxis, including the administration of vaccines or mandatory or recommended prophylaxis for individuals travelling abroad. Obscuring the data will naturally apply to third parties; the data subject can always access their own FSE.
The Ministerial Decree of 7 September 2023 does not provide for the possibility of revoking consent to the processing of personal data concerning: - the administration of mandatory or recommended vaccinations or prophylaxis for individuals arriving from abroad; - being subjected to quarantine or isolation measures; - international contact tracing activities; - prophylaxis measures following exposure to pathogens relating to individuals who have used collective transport or stayed in closed communities. In these cases, the Ministry of Health reports the cases to the relevant local health authorities.
The Ministry of Health nevertheless reserves the right to process data in anonymised form (for anyone inclined to believe this promise) for the purposes of study and scientific research in the medical, biomedical and epidemiological fields, and for the purposes of healthcare planning, verification of the quality of care and evaluation of healthcare assistance.
It is important to emphasise that the revocation of consent does not prejudice the right to receive healthcare services.
Consent to data processing or its revocation can always be amended at the discretion of the data subject.
As can be seen, it is possible to restrict access to one's health data quite significantly, though not entirely. Above all, there is the risk that the data, being held by an untrustworthy and dangerous organisation like the Ministry of Health, may subsequently be subjected to abuse or to new regulations that the government can always enact to restrict masking options. Therefore, the most important thing is not to feed the FSE. Staying away from public healthcare providers and consulting only private practitioners who do not enter their patients' data into the FSE is the best way to protect one's health and data privacy.