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On the 19th of October, 2023, the President assented to the Digital Health Act, 2023 (the Act). The date of commencement of the Act was 2nd November, 2023.
The Act establishes the Digital Health Agency (the Agency), a comprehensive integrated health information system (the system), and a framework for the governance of health data. The document covers various aspects such as the establishment of the Agency, the technical aspects of the system, health data governance, confidentiality, privacy and security of data, and other related provisions.
In creating the Agency, the Act, as is usual with such enactments, makes the Agency a body corporate, capable of suing and being sued, dealing with property and dealing with money and gives the Agency a Board that is an interesting mix of National government officials, private industry representatives and persons representing counties.
The system shall be used in managing digital systems that are required during health information exchange. The system’s scope of work extends to, but is not limited to, collection, analysis, reporting, storage and sharing of health or anything relating to health, whether mental or physical, of an individual for the specific purpose of providing healthcare services. In addition, the Act has employed health and health-related data for operational management and provides essential support for healthcare policy decisions.
The Act aims to promote innovation, safeguard the privacy and security of health data, and facilitate the use of digital technology to improve healthcare and, in a sense, picks up from where the Data Protection Act, 2019, left off and there has been a deliberate and laudable effort to create consistency between the Act and the Data Protection Act, 2019.
The Act is available on http://kenyalaw.org/kl/fileadmin/pdfdownloads/Acts/2023/TheDigitalHealthAct_2023.pdf
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