Procedimiento

In this sub-chapter the three main themes of this research will be linked to analyse the impact of the applied government tools. The three main themes that have been discussed are;

1) Government instruments 2) Big data technologies

3) Healthcare information protection

By doing so, an indication will be made regarding the quality of healthcare protection which the Dutch government can provide by applying certain tools.

Digitized personal information is pushing the limits of available data processing technology. By using increasingly powerful technologies and software systems, new analytical tools and improvements in IT data integration, a concrete basis can be made for the use of Big Data in healthcare. Meanwhile, the Dutch government is trying to cope with the rapidly growing IT movement in healthcare. The case of the LSP provides us with an excellent example of the implementation of innovative technology in the healthcare sector. However, a number of issues arise with the implementation of Big Data technologies. These issues include aspects such as privacy, security, ownership and the regulatory framework in which these innovations operate.

In the first sub-chapter of the analysis, a legal framework demonstrates the regulatory foundations which currently exists in the healthcare sector. These foundations form the legal directives for the policy process from which the LSP was created. The policy process provides us with a pragmatic view of the effects of the innovative Big Data technologies. However, the creation of the LSP also illustrated the governmental instruments that were used in the policy process. These instruments had the initial intention to address societal issues. The implementation of these instruments had a different effect due to the non-comprehensive nature of the legislation. One of the undesired effects was the risks of privacy infringement due to the use of Big Data technologies. Therefore, the following sub-chapter had to take a closer look at to what extent the Big Data technologies would be applied in the proposed LSP. The second sub-chapter emphasized upon the architecture of the LSP. A clear indication of the use and impact of Big Data technologies was required in order to assess to what extent it would pose a privacy risk to the users of the LSP. The creation of the LSP was based on the innovative IT possibilities in the healthcare sector. The traditional forms of data exchange in the healthcare sector are based on handwritten notes and reports. This unstructured data is difficult to share which makes transparency an issue. This results in the lack of coordination among healthcare providers which leads to inefficient workflows and medical errors. Therefore, the medical data that currently exists is in need of modernization. However, the digitalization of the healthcare sector means an exponential growth of medical data. The increase of medical data comes from both digitizing existing data and from generating new forms of data. By applying Big Data technologies, personal medical records are easier to share which would allow for an increased cooperation of healthcare providers. With the creation of the LSP, the use of Big Data technologies would indeed provide healthcare providers with advances in the management of medical data. However, there are also risks attached to the LSP in its current form. Therefore, a closer look needed to be taken towards the protection of healthcare information.

In the third sub-chapter of the analysis, the instruments that were used in the policy process were assessed. The initial use of the governmental instruments was meant to improve growing healthcare needs by providing services that could predict and prevent crises. The policy overview in the sub-chapter provided a clear indication on the steps that had been taken in order to meet these demands and improve the quality of healthcare. However, when the applied tools were assessed, several issues came into view that had a negative impact on the quality of healthcare. Therefore, an analysis was made which took a closer look at the policy process in order to identify the risks linked to specific parts of the current policy. This analysis reviewed specific laws regarding the protection of personal information such as the Wbp and the Wgbo.

In order to be able to answer the main research question of this thesis, the three main themes had to be analysed independently. This analysis provided us with the necessary foundation from which specific steps were taken. The first sub-chapter of the analysis provided us with the legal foundation which applied in the case study of the LSP. Based on these legal grounds, the Dutch government was able to implement a policy process with which Big Data technologies could be used. The steps that were taken in that process were then analysed by the taxonomy provided by Christopher Hood. With his NATO model, several resources were identified which indicated the use of certain governmental tools in order to accomplish the policy goals. The steps that were taken had the initial intention to create a policy which would allow for the organization of a system that could manage the enormous variety of data in a transparent and easy to use way. From a privacy point of view, this mostly unstructured data proved to be a challenge. In order to improve the quality of healthcare, the LSP made use Big Data-like technologies. These technologies, which were intended to improve the quality of healthcare, did not provide a comprehensive protection of the patient’s medical information. The application of these technologies, therefore, was able to lead to privacy infringement of the patient. The Dutch government did not address these serious concerns which were in conflict with the legislation on healthcare information protection. Instead, in order to implement the LSP, the Dutch government made use of several governmental instruments. Rather than to solve a public issue, the instruments applied by the Dutch government were selected to push the agenda for the creation of the LSP regardless of the risks involved. This specific use of government tools has an indirect effect on the quality of healthcare information protection. Therefore, instead of addressing the risks of Big Data technologies in the LSP system, the Dutch government decided to ignore the critics and push their agenda by applying certain tools. The choices made by the Dutch government link the applied instruments with the exposed Big Data technologies which, as a result, have a negative impact on the quality of healthcare information protection.