Privacy in Healthcare
Privacy in healthcare is centered on one core idea: patients should have reasonable control over how their personal health information is collected, used, shared, and retained, and organizations must handle it with care.
Why healthcare privacy is different
Healthcare data is sensitive, persistent, and easy to misuse.
It’s more identifying than most teams realize
Health information often becomes identifying even when you remove obvious fields. Combine a few signals (appointments, locations, device IDs, diagnosis codes) and people can be re-identified.
Trust is part of the product
If patients don’t trust the system, they withhold information, avoid care, or refuse to use tools—privacy failures damage outcomes, not just brand.
What “good privacy” looks like in practice
Healthcare privacy is not just a policy. It’s operational discipline.
The basics you need to get right
- Collect only what you need (and be clear why)
- Make consent and disclosures understandable
- Limit access (role-based access, no “everyone can see everything”)
- Define retention and deletion rules
- Control vendors and integrations
- Be ready for incidents and requests (access/corrections where applicable)
If you’re starting from zero, implement a baseline program with Minimum Viable Privacy (MVP)
Where teams usually get burned
Healthcare privacy problems often come from “normal” tools and workflows.
Common pain points
- Support tickets and screenshots containing PHI
- Analytics and session replay collecting more than intended
- Vendors added without a privacy review
- Exports stored indefinitely in shared folders
- Loose permissions for admin tools and production databases
If you need to map and fix the real data flow, start with a Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA)
Building privacy into change (without slowing delivery)
Healthcare products change constantly. Privacy needs a lightweight gate that scales.
A practical approach
- Run PIAs for major features, new vendors, and integrations
- Keep privacy decisions centralized (someone owns the calls)
- Maintain “evidence” so you’re not rebuilding answers for every questionnaire
Ongoing leadership option: Virtual Privacy Officer (vPO)
Next step
If you want privacy to be a growth enabler (not a blocker), we’ll help you implement a program your partners can trust. Book a call