As governments across the globe look to ease the restrictive measures placed on individuals during the COVID-19 pandemic, the need for a secure way to share personal health information has become clear.
Individuals that present reasonable evidence that they pose a low risk of transmitting the COVID-19 (either they have recovered or have a recent test indicating they’re not currently infected), need a secure and trustworthy way of proving this information in order to return to work, board a flight or return to some specific, limited access venues and activities.
We believe that abiding by a Code of Practice is the right approach to ensure that personal health information is shared in a secure, privacy-preserving way, and can be trusted as an accurate representation of an individual’s health status.
Code of Practice
As such, we have drafted a proposed Code of Practice, which serves as an initial framework for the secure sharing of health data for a range of purposes, including creating a Health Test Credential. The key organisations covered by these standards are those that:
- test and issue test results or certificates;
- provide the Health Test Credential; and
- require information on an individual’s health status.
The pillars of the Code are;
- Trusted identity verification of individuals
- Trusted and transparent health testing of individuals by authorities
- Trusted storage of credentials or Health Data
- Trusted presentation and transfer of Health Test Credentials
- Privacy requirements
Yoti’s COVID-19 Pledge
Yoti is uniquely positioned to issue digital credentials to the public at scale through the free Yoti app. We are currently working with the NHS to remotely issue digital staff ID cards and have the system architecture in place to issue third-party credentials from a verified authority.
The Yoti app has always been free for individuals and we are also offering as part of our COVID-19 pledge
- issuing COVID-19 test results to the Yoti app is free for both individuals and verified testing organisations (such as health laboratories, clinics and pharmacists)
- receiving COVID-19 test results is free for organisations;
- our API integrations are free for organisations.
The Yoti app is currently in English, French and Spanish, and with more languages being added as we grow.
Yoti can support the granularity of the specific test results, whether that is detection viral RNA, antigens or antibodies using a swab or blood test, the credential issuer, and the duration of the test result stored securely in the individual’s secure digital wallet.
Call for collaboration
Given the global nature of the coronavirus pandemic, it is clear that any framework governing the secure share of personal health information must be developed collaboratively.
We have drafted what we believe to be the fundamental pillars to ensure that health data is handled securely, for the intended and declared purposes, and is valid, trustworthy and an accurate representation of an individual’s health status. We have shared this draft Code with experts and we welcome more feedback from health organisations and civil society bodies.
You can read the full version of the Code of Practice here.