Engineering Law and Cybersecurity in Digital Health: Legal-Informatics Frameworks for Regulating Cross-Border Data Interoperability, Liability, and Resilience in Public Health Communication Systems

The proliferation of digital health technologies and public health informatics has transformed healthcare delivery and global health governance by enabling real-time data exchange, precision interventions, and transnational collaboration. Yet, these innovations also expose critical vulnerabilities in cybersecurity, liability allocation, and regulatory coherence. This article investigates these challenges through the lens of engineering law, proposing a legal-informatics framework for governing cross-border data interoperability and resilience in public health communication systems. The central research problem addressed is how engineering law—traditionally applied to physical infrastructures—can be reimagined to regulate digital health platforms in ways that embed safety-by-design, compliance-by-architecture, and accountability-by-default into system development and governance. Methodologically, the study employs a comparative legal analysis of the European Union, United States, and China, combined with socio-technical evaluation of interoperability standards, liability models, and resilience mechanisms. Primary legal instruments (e.g., GDPR, HIPAA, NIS2 Directive, Cybersecurity Law of China), international standards (ISO/IEC 27001, HL7 FHIR, IEC 62443), and case studies (e.g., the EU Digital COVID Certificate, African CDC data platforms) form the empirical basis of the analysis. The findings demonstrate that fragmented legal frameworks and inconsistent liability regimes undermine the resilience of digital health infrastructures, leaving systems vulnerable to cyber threats and regulatory fragmentation. To address these shortcomings, the article proposes a four-pillar regulatory model grounded in interoperability, cybersecurity safeguards, liability allocation, and resilience mechanisms. By operationalising these pillars, the study contributes a novel legal-informatics framework that strengthens both accountability and systemic security. Ultimately, the article offers policymakers, engineers, and legal scholars a structured blueprint for harmonising digital health regulation, advancing transnational public health resilience, and safeguarding trust in an increasingly interconnected digital healthcare ecosystem.