Dr John Frownfelter on Collecting Health Data

More and more data are being collected on people and in healthcare, patients have to believe that the data being collected is for their good and with the goal of improving their care, said John Frownfelter, MD, FACP, chief medical officer of Jvion.

Transcript

How can healthcare balance the pros and cons consumers see when they think about all the data being collected on them?

Well, the data is out there. I think there is a sense of the public trust having been violated and at the same time everybody acknowledges—I’ve got a lot of friends, especially younger generation, like “Yeah, they collect it and I don’t care. I have Alexa and I have Google in my home, and I know they’re collecting data on me and I don’t care.”

So, is healthcare data really any different? Or is the fact that we’re using social data that we can get on a patient to improve the care that we’re delivering, is that a bad thing? Or is that a good thing? That’s the kind of question that should be raised and debated, but in general, one of the guiding principles there is beneficence, and the good intention behind having that data in order to render better care is certainly noble.

So, at the end of the day, in healthcare, I think we win the ethical discussion and we are certainly in a better position than say the big industry tech giants that are using it for profit.