Data Protection in Connected Health Ecosystems Hana Horak 1 , Hrvoje Belani 2 , Igor Ljubi 2 1 University of Zagreb, Faculty of Economics and Business, J. F. Kennedy 6, HR-10000 Za- greb, Croatia; 2 Croatian Health Insurance Fund, Margaretska 3, HR-10000 Zagreb, Croatia hhorak@efzg.hr, {hrvoje.belani; igor.ljubi}@hzzo.hr Abstract. The term Connected Health has been coined to encompass various terms that describe different recent advances in ICT-enabled healthcare. In par- allel with the efforts to increase availability and quality of the healthcare services while lowering the costs through employing various ICT solutions, special atten- tion should be given to data protection issues in such systems. Naturally, medical data of a person are the most sensitive data, and as such require protection not only by institutions involved in healthcare provision but all the stakeholders in healthcare-related processes. This paper focuses on data protection in Electronic Health Records. We present the legal basis for establishing and maintenance of the EHR in Member States of the European Union. Based on the legislation, we discuss the data protection efforts being done by various Member States, and propose a unified European approach on the protection of personal data in EHRs. As a case study, we present the situation in Croatia, which has recently started the designing phase of EHR implementation. Before the conclusion, we are re- viewing challenges that lie ahead in data protection of EHRs and comment sug- gested workarounds to deal with them. Keywords: Data protection, Connected health, Electronic health record, Infor- mation security, User privacy 1 Introduction Connected health includes terms such as eHealth, Digital Health, mHealth, tele health, tele care, remote care, and assisted living. It encompasses terms such as wireless, digital, mobile, and tele-health and refers to a conceptual model for health management where devices, services or interventions are designed around the patient’s needs, and health related data is shared, in such a way that the patient can receive care in the most proactive and efficient manner possible [1]. All stakeholders in the process are ‘con- nected’ by means of timely sharing and presentation of accurate and pertinent infor- mation regarding patient status through smarter use of data, devices, communication platforms and people. In connected health technology is vital and exciting – but it is just one part of a much wider context which includes patient care pathways, business and revenue models, data analytics and more. Connected health consolidates infor- mation from many different spheres of one person’s world to give a more co mplete picture of their health. ICT Innovations 2015 Web Proceedings ISSN 1857-7288 293 S. Loshkovska, S. Koceski (Editors): ICT Innovations 2015, Web Proceedings, ISSN 1857-7288 © ICT ACT http://ictinnovations.org/2015, 2015