Study-Unit Description

Study-Unit Description


CODE MCT4003

 
TITLE Legal Issues in e-Health

 
UM LEVEL 04 - Years 4, 5 in Modular UG or PG Cert Course

 
MQF LEVEL 6

 
ECTS CREDITS 4

 
DEPARTMENT Media, Communications & Technology Law

 
DESCRIPTION This study-unit aims at introducing students to selected legal issues in the provision of e-health. Today, many medical services are provided using information technology. These services are often referred to in literature as e-health services. They range from seemingly innocuous apps on one's smart phone monitoring heart rates, calorie intake etc. to more complex transfer of clinical test results, sharing of clinical information among medical specialists for the purpose of diagnosis etc.

The study-unit will consider a series of legal issues including, privacy and data protection, medical confidentiality, liability in the provision of e-health services and intellectual property considerations.

Study-unit Aims:

This study-unit aims at introducing students to:
a. the developing field of e-health services; and
b. to a series of legal issues that may arise in the provision of e-health services, including, privacy and data protection, medical confidentiality, liability and intellectual property.

Learning Outcomes:

1. Knowledge & Understanding:
By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to:

a. identify and reflect upon the need for e-health and consequent legal issues;
b. distinguish between different e-health applications and technologies and the their effect on law and developments in law;
c. analyse the efficacy of the current European legal framework for e-health.

2. Skills:
By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to:

a. research on selected legal issues on e-health;
b. write about selected legal issues in e-health;
c. deliver a presentation to an informed audience on selected legal issues on e-health.

Main Text/s and any supplementary readings:

Relevant journal articles will be provided in class.

George, Carlisle, Whitehouse, Diane, Duquenoy, Penny (Eds.), eHealth: Legal, Ethical and Governance Challenges (Springer: Netherlands 2012)
Magdalene Rosenmöller, Diane Whitehouse, Petra Wilson (Eds.), Managing EHealth: From Vision to Reality (Palgrave Macmillan: London, 2014)
WHO, Legal frameworks for eHealth (2012) (http://whqlibdoc.who.int/publications/2012/9789241503143_eng.pdf)

 
ADDITIONAL NOTES Students taking this study-unit need to have a background in law.

 
STUDY-UNIT TYPE Lecture

 
METHOD OF ASSESSMENT
Assessment Component/s Sept. Asst Session Weighting
Assignment Yes 100%

 
LECTURER/S Jeanne Pia Mifsud Bonnici

 

 
The University makes every effort to ensure that the published Courses Plans, Programmes of Study and Study-Unit information are complete and up-to-date at the time of publication. The University reserves the right to make changes in case errors are detected after publication.
The availability of optional units may be subject to timetabling constraints.
Units not attracting a sufficient number of registrations may be withdrawn without notice.
It should be noted that all the information in the description above applies to study-units available during the academic year 2023/4. It may be subject to change in subsequent years.

https://www.um.edu.mt/course/studyunit