Safeguarding privacy in the socio-healthcare sector is today one of the most delicate and complex challenges for professionals involved in service management, patient care, and continuity of assistance between hospital and community settings. The growing digitalization of processes has brought new opportunities, but also new responsibilities.

In this context, data protection means above all ensuring dignity, trust, and safety for the people receiving care. Health data is among the most sensitive categories of information and requires advanced competencies in governance, access protocols, security measures, and risk assessment. This approach concerns all professionals: managers, coordinators, healthcare workers, social workers, and anyone who handles information related to a person’s health and well-being. Privacy protection thus becomes a cultural element before a technical one.

A crucial—often underestimated—aspect concerns communication. Privacy in the socio-healthcare sector is not only about technology and regulations: it also involves managing relationships, handling information shared within multidisciplinary teams, and understanding the boundary between what must be communicated to ensure care continuity and what must instead remain protected. The most important competency becomes, therefore, professional awareness: the ability to recognize risks, apply correct procedures, and understand the impact of one’s decisions on the lives of those receiving care.

The topic of data protection is addressed across all Healthcare Master’s Programs at the University of Parma. Through lectures, case studies, and practical exercises, students develop the skills needed to effectively manage privacy, data security, and information governance within healthcare and socio-healthcare services.