The legal context of collecting, storing and using electronic data obtained from active implanted medical devices used for diabetes in Australia: The consumer experience

There are now many health devices that can be implanted into consumers’ bodies to help with the monitoring their health condition. These devices can communicate health data back to data storage devices where clinicians can review and act accordingly to help maintain consumers’ health. Such advances have raised questions about privacy and consent for the use of consumers health data.

We would like to talk to people who have consented to an implanted active medical device for the management of their diabetes, or have consented to such a device on behalf of another person. The types of implants we are interested in are those that are medically implanted into the user and rely on wireless or Bluetooth connectivity to communicate patient information, such as blood glucose monitors (either connected to an insulin pump or not) that transmit information or data from the implant to an external source (such as the clinical team, the manufacturer or an external app on your phone or computer).

We want to talk with people about their experiences in providing consent to explore whether the existing laws about this topic are sufficient in ensuring informed consent for the collection, storage and future use of the data that is sent and received from those devices.

Interviews will be undertaken using Microsoft Teams, so participants can be located anywhere in Australia.

For more information about the study, please contact the student researcher, Rebecca Millar, via email at rmillar@swin.edu.au.