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--- data_compliance_and_wsi [2023/11/09 15:16] – chris
+++ data_compliance_and_wsi [2026/03/23 11:34] (current) – rudy
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-**Privacy Regulations and WSI**
+====== Data compliance and WSI ======
-Whole Slide Imaging (WSI) is a relatively new category of patient data. As such, recently, some efforts have been made to better understand how WSIs (whole slide images) can be utilized in a balancing act: maximizing individual and public benefit, while at the same time, restricting and protecting its access, whenever such access would pose a potential privacy risk and non-compliance with data privacy laws (e.g. GDPR). Although by itself the patient’s photographic tissue image falls under the category of de facto anonymity (https://www.lboro.ac.uk/data-privacy/resources/personaldata/ ) of GDPR guidance, the existence of patient-ids and/or other tags attached to the WSI increase the likelihood of patient identification, and raise potential privacy issues. (Holub et al., 2023).
+===== Privacy Regulations and WSI =====
+Whole Slide Imaging (WSI) is a relatively new category of patient health data. As such, recently, some efforts have been made to better understand how WSIs (whole slide images) can be utilized in a balancing act: maximizing individual and public benefit, while at the same time, restricting and protecting its access, whenever such access would pose a potential privacy risk and non-compliance with data privacy laws (e.g. GDPR). Although by itself the patient’s photographic tissue image falls under the category of de facto anonymity (https://www.lboro.ac.uk/data-privacy/resources/personaldata/ ) of GDPR guidance, the existence of patient-ids and/or other tags attached to the WSI increase the likelihood of patient identification, and raise potential privacy issues. (Holub et al., 2023).
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 Pathology societies have not implemented a definitive framework yet, and previous efforts to make WSI part of DICOM were not successful due to the complexity of WSI and differences in pathology clinical workflows. Despite the absence of reference literature from professional pathology societies, general guidelines and use cases have been published in recent years. Articles focused on how to lawfully and ethically process WSIs as patient data point to pseudonymization as a relevant strategy to ensure data compliance, and perhaps most importantly, as a strategy to avoid data breaches and its negative consequences for both patients and organizations. In fact pseudonymization is often part of basic but sound strategies when it comes to protect personal data in general, as explained by Thomas Zerdick (2021):\\
-"If you do not need personal data, do not collect personal data (…) if you really need personal data, then start by pseudonymising this personal data."\\
+//"If you do not need personal data, do not collect personal data (…) if you really need personal data, then start by pseudonymising this personal data."// \\
 **References**\\