Privacy is good for business!
With the recent Cambridge Analytica scandal which revealed the scope of our personal data being mishandled by the global data handlers the focus of the public is turning back to privacy and the control we have over our own personal data floating in the cyberspace.
It turns out there are little to no control once the data is entered into the network which gave birth to the stigma of not sharing your data is the only effective prevention of the mishandling.
Not sharing might be a solution for some but in reality data sharing is not only one of the cornerstones of data economy, it is also beneficial to researchers, patients and doctors since they can learn more and provide better treatments.
The road to e-health is based on privacy
The e-health field is plagued with errors and abuses. E-health providers are struggling with the security protocols needed to properly secure the highly sensitive health data, cost saving being one of the reasons for it.
This in turns hampers the broad adoption of the e-health solutions since the patients are reluctant to adopt it, which makes sense. Why would you willingly participate in a system without any clear benefits and very clear threats?
Even the road to privacy-savvy implementation is rife with problems. As shown from the case of national e-health system implementation in Australia, the problem with patient data making its way to the dark net caused the system to lose its attraction with the patients while on the other hand the doctors were dissatisfied with the way the patients could control the data flow, hampering the doctor’s insight into the files.
The solutions are out there — at least in theory. A Science|Business roundtable in Tallinn, as part of Estonia’s EU Council Presidency, offers some suggestions about how to get the best healthcare outcomes for citizens.
At number one the panelists recommend the patients to control their own health data. They should have access to their personal health records from birth. At number three, they emphasise that the medical records need to be able to pass smoothly among hospitals and care facilities, public and private institutions and companies — both within countries, and across borders.
We can see the crux of privacy is important to the patients as well as doctors. The trends are showing a clear correlation between trust and adoption since people are growing weary of the new systems that overpromise and underdeliver.
Change the paradigm!
The current paradigm which is focusing on securing the data gathered in data silos and is then worrying about protecting these so-called toxic assets has to change.
We can clearly see the current data management strategy is not working and is endangering the users and tech providers alike. There is also the tendency of overlapping system where one of them is taking care of data analysis, another one is dedicated to data storage, another one is in place for the user interface. This causes interoperability problems which can be deadly.
That is why Iryo is proposing a paradigm shift which will offer the benefits of the e-health system for the users, putting the data control in their own hands and at the same time enable the data to be universally interchangeable, anonymized and integrated from start to finish.
By using blockchain as an access-control mechanism, the Iryo platform enables the user to allow or disallow access to its medical data. At the same time the user can anonymously share its data with medical researchers which are able to make inquiries into the Iryo network.
This means the researchers will be able to get better data to aid them in their research and at the same time the patients will be the ones deciding where their data should or should not go.
Read more about Iryo network implementation,
the work we do in the Middle East,
and Iryo network roadmap.
