Technologies for the Pseudonymization of Medical Data: A Legal Evaluation

Privacy is one of the fundamental issues in health care today. Although, it is a fundamental right of every individual to demand privacy and a variety of laws were enacted that demand the protection of patientspsila privacy, approaches for protecting privacy often do not comply with legal requirements or basic security requirements. This paper highlights research directions currently pursued for privacy protection in e-health and evaluates common pseudonymization approaches against legal and technical criteria. Thereby, it supports decision makers in deciding on privacy systems and researchers in identifying the gaps of current approaches for privacy protection as a basis for further research.