Modern communication and information technologies are rapidly being deployed at health care institutions around the world. Although these technologies offer many benefits, ensuring data protection is a major concern, and implementation of robust data protection measures is essential. In this context, health care providers and medical care facilities must frequently make difficult decisions and compromises between the need to provide effective medical care and the need to ensure data security and patient privacy. In the present paper, we describe and discuss key issues related to data protection systems in the setting of cancer care hospitals in Europe. We provide real-life examples from two European countries-Poland and the Czech Republic-to illustrate data protection issues and the steps being taking to address these questions. More specifically, we discuss the legal framework surrounding data protection and technical aspects related to patient authentication and communication.

1st Department of Internal Medicine Medical Faculty and University Hospital Charles University Sokolska 548 500 05 Hradec Kralove Czech Republic

Department of Electroradiology University of Medical Sciences Fredry 10 61 701 Poznan Poland

Department of Oncology and Radiotherapy Medical Faculty and University Hospital Charles University Sokolska 548 500 05 Hradec Kralove Czech Republic

Greater Poland Cancer Centre Garbary 15 61 866 Poznan Poland

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