Abstract
With an emphasis on the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act, 2023, and its consequences for medical professionals, this article conducts a thorough analysis of the significant effects of India’s quickly changing data protection environment. It emphasises how urgently a unified, standardised, and legally binding framework to control the gathering, handling, storing, and sharing of private patient data is needed. Inconsistencies, uncertainty, and frequent breaches of patient confidentiality among healthcare institutions are currently the outcome of the lack of a unified system. The article explores how the Act has changed the roles and obligations of medical professionals as data custodians, emphasising how important it is to get patients’ express, informed, and unqualified consent before processing any personal health data. It also highlights the necessity of following legal and moral guidelines while managing data and putting strong organisational and technical measures in place to stop breaches. The report also outlines the legal requirements put on healthcare providers, particularly those pertaining to data breach notifications, and addresses the specific exceptions to the duty of patient confidentiality, such as disclosures required by the public interest or court orders. In order to show how seriously the legislation takes protecting patient privacy, the report also describes the severe consequences that medical professionals may encounter for non-compliance. The article comes to the conclusion that incorporating open, consent-driven, and legally compliant data management procedures is critical for preserving patient privacy, upholding the fundamental right to privacy guaranteed under the Indian Constitution, and preserving public confidence in the healthcare system.
Keywords: – Data Protection; DPDP Act 2023; Medical Practitioners; Privacy Rights; Patient Consent.
Introduction
In India, the handling of patients’ medical data by medical practitioners is fraught with significant privacy concerns, particularly during the transfer of data from one department to another, even when such transfers are for legitimate medical reasons. While many hospitals, doctors, private clinics, and other healthcare providers may have internal systems in place that aim to maintain the privacy of patient information during processing, these systems often lack uniformity and legal backing. The current approach relies heavily on the subjective “reasonable person” standard when resolving disputes concerning breaches of medical privacy, which leads to ambiguity and a lack of accountability. There is an urgent need for a standardized, legally enforceable framework that governs the collection, processing, and sharing of medical data across all levels of healthcare services. Such a framework must be backed by statutory regulations to ensure consistent implementation and provide recourse in case of violations. The recently enacted Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act, 2023 offers a valuable blueprint in this regard, as it outlines clear obligations for data fiduciaries and processors regarding the management of personal data. Medical practitioners could adopt similar legislative measures that not only define how patient data should be processed and transferred but also impose penalties on those who mishandle such sensitive information. A legally monitored and uniform system will help safeguard patients’ right to privacy and restore trust in the healthcare ecosystem.