A problem in Doctolib’s infrastructure resulted in the loss of patient data.
Doctolib is the preferred platform for French people to make a medical appointment. But if it is usually particularly reliable, it has just suffered a problem which led to the deletion of patient information on the interface of health practitioners.
A bug in the system
Doctolib experienced some issues at the end of April. The website used by both patients and health specialists informed its users on May 3 that a problem had occurred in its system. As a result, several pieces of information have been erased. The reasons for the appointment, but also the medical observations entered between Wednesday April 26 at 5:40 p.m. and Thursday April 27 at 11:40 a.m. have been lost.
The reason ? A technical problem, caused by the addition of a new feature. Doctolib explains that the issue was resolved very quickly once discovered – within an hour. It would have affected, according to the service questioned by BFM-TV1.3% of practitioners, representing some 2,300 healthcare professionals and therefore several thousand patients.
Patients need not worry
But this problem should not go beyond the stage of inconvenience. Because as Doctolib points out, this is a bug and not a theft of data by a third party: “ the information was lost but none was disclosed to anyone. On the contrary, the text fields concerned have not been saved. It will then be necessary for doctors, nurses or other dentists to make an effort to remember.
Furthermore, Doctolib does not consider itself required to report to the CNIL, since the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) only require notification of this type of incident if it includes the leak of data from users. In any case, if you consulted during this interlude, do not be surprised if your doctor asks you for additional information soon.
Source : BFM-TV
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