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Health Data

What is Health Data?

Personal data related to the physical or mental health of a natural person, including the provision of health care services. Health data is treated as special category data under GDPR and regulated by HIPAA in the United States.

Privacy

Each of these is named in at least one of the same controls as health data. The number is how many controls name both.

What the standards actually require on health data

Requirements naming health data across 6 standards, quoted from the control text.

Sale of Consumer Health Data is prohibited without a written, statute-compliant Valid Authorization that includes specific data, recipient, purpose, expiration not exceeding one year, and consumer right to revoke.

MHMD-SAL.1 · Valid authorization to sell Consumer Health Data

Per EHDS: cross-border health data. Requirements include (a) implement Cross-Border Data Transfers per Article 7 + (b) cooperate with MyHealth@EU + (c) maintain inventory of cross-border flows + (d) implement appropriate safeguards + (e) cooperate with EHDS Bo...

EHDSREG-5 · Cross-Border Health Data Flows

Data captured through digital health systems should be subject to defined data quality standards, with routine audit, validation, and feedback loops to source facilities.

WHO-DH-IMP.4 · Health data quality and integrity

Connecticut's 2023 amendment adds protections for consumer health data, including consent for processing and restrictions on sale.

CTDPA-42-525-CHD · Consumer Health Data (PA 23-56)

Public and private health establishments and health professionals may collect and process data relating to physical or mental health of patients subject to professional secrecy.

AR-25326-ART8-HEALTH · Health Data Special Rules

Questions people ask about health data

What is Health Data?
Personal data related to the physical or mental health of a natural person, including the provision of health care services. Health data is treated as special category data under GDPR and regulated by HIPAA in the United States.
Why is Health Data important for compliance?
Health Data is a key concept in Privacy. Understanding health data helps organizations meet regulatory requirements, reduce risk, and demonstrate due diligence during audits. Our compliance platform maps 686 frameworks with 311K cross-framework control mappings.
Which compliance frameworks address Health Data?
Health Data appears in the requirement text of Washington My Health My Data Act (MHMD), Regulation on the European Health Data Space (EHDS), WHO Global Strategy on Digital Health 2020-2025, Minnesota Consumer Data Privacy Act, Connecticut Data Privacy Act (CTDPA). Across these standards we have identified 24 controls that name it directly, each linked to the control text on the compliance platform.
Where can I learn more about Health Data?
Explore our compliance framework pages to see how health data applies across different standards and regulations. Our implementation guides provide step-by-step guidance, and the compliance platform offers AI-powered analysis of how this concept maps across 686 frameworks.

See how Health Data applies across compliance frameworks

Our platform maps 686 frameworks with 311K cross-framework control mappings. Explore how this concept is addressed across standards.

Written and maintained by Gerard Blokdyk, The Art of Service.