Helseformål

Helseformål is a Norwegian term that translates to “health purposes” and is used to describe the objectives for which health information, health services, or health data may be used or processed. The term covers activities related to health care, disease prevention, and health research when conducted under appropriate safeguards.

It includes clinical care such as diagnosis, treatment, rehabilitation, and care planning; preventive measures such as screening and vaccination; health data processing for medical records and health-system management; and public health activities including surveillance and epidemiological studies, as well as health research conducted with proper approvals and safeguards.

Because health information is sensitive personal data, processing for health purposes is subject to strict rules under national privacy laws and EU GDPR. In many contexts, explicit consent or another legal basis is required, and data processing must respect purpose limitation, data minimization, access controls, and security. Research involving health data typically requires ethics review and, where possible, anonymization or pseudonymization.

Practical use examples include hospital information systems that store patient data to enable care, public health agencies monitoring health trends, and researchers analyzing health data to improve treatment outcomes, all under defined permissions and safeguards to protect individuals’ rights.

The term is most commonly used in Norwegian health and data-protection contexts, with English translations such as “health purposes” or “purposes related to health.”