April 23, 2021 Release of Basic Guidelines for the Management of Health and other personal data by Private-sector PHR Business Operators and Report from Study Team on Private Utilization

The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC), the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW), and the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) organized a study team on private utilization (headed by Chief Investigator YAMAMOTO Ryuichi, Chief Director of the Medical Information System Development Center) under a working group for the utilization of health and other personal data organized by a study group on the utilization of health, medical, and nursing care information. On the basis of the results of the study, the team has issued basic guidelines for the management of health and other personal data by private-sector PHR business operators, along with a report. Accordingly, MIC, MHLW, and METI have decided to open them to the public.

1. Background

The working group for the utilization of health and other personal data (hereafter referred to as the “WG”) of the study group on the utilization of health, medical, and nursing care information has been studying a mechanism for individuals and their families to accurately grasp their personal health information, such as health diagnosis results and medication history as electronic personal health records (PHRs). The WG stated the necessity for developing rules for private-sector PHR business operators so that private PHR services can be used appropriately. In response to this, since October 2020, the study team on private utilization (hereafter referred to as the “Team”) under the WG has been studying matters to be observed by private-sector business operators that provide PHR services.
On the basis of the results of the study, the Team has issued the guidelines and report, entitled Basic Guidelines for the management of health and other personal data by private-sector PHR business operators and Report from Study Team on Private Utilization, respectively. Accordingly, MIC, MHLW, and METI have decided to open them to the public.

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  The published material is only available in Japanese.

2. Joint announcement

For this press release, information is also available in the list of what’s new on the MHLW website ( https://www.mhlw.go.jp/english/ ) and the news release page of the METI website ( https://www.meti.go.jp/english/index.html ).