Health data
[4] For example, a patient's name, date of birth, or a blood-test result can be recorded in a structured data format.
[4] Emails, audio recordings, or physician notes about a patient are examples of unstructured health data.
These touch points include clinics/physician offices, pharmacies, payers/insurance companies, hospitals, laboratories, and senior homes.
Information is also collected through participation in clinical trials, health agency surveys, medical devices, and genomic testing.
mHealth involves the use and capitalization on a mobile phone's core utility of voice and short messaging service (SMS) as well as more complex functionalities and applications including general packet radio service (GPRS), third and fourth generation mobile telecommunications (3G and 4G systems), global positioning system (GPS), and Bluetooth technology.
PGHD, mHealth, eHealth, and other technological development such as telemedicine, constitute a new digital health paradigm.
An increase in PGHD has led some experts to envision a future in which patients have greater influence over the health care system.
[22] In 2013, an Omnibus Rule implementing final provisions of HITECH was revealed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
[22] Despite these legislative amends, security and privacy concerns continue to persist as healthcare technologies advance and grow in popularity.
[24] It is worth noticing that in 2018, Social Indicators Research published the scientific evidence of 173,398,820 (over 173 million) individuals affected in USA from October 2008 (when the data were collected) to September 2017 (when the statistical analysis took place).
[26] It has been argued that the collection and use of health data for any non-clinical purpose, "is ethically sound only if there is (or could reasonably arise) a question to be answered; the methodology (design, data collected, etc) will answer the question; and the costs, including both communal health care resources and any risks and burden imposed on the participants, justify the benefits to society.
[27] However, the data-driven approach has also raised concerns on the side of privacy advocates, who worry about how the collected information is going to be used.
Privacy advocates have long argued for increased protection of personal health information on fears that marketers, data bundlers or even hackers could sell or divulge the information, possibly affecting people's jobs and credit or leading to identity theft.
It is essential to leverage such potential while managing possible risks related to the misuse of personal data.
[28] The document identifies priority four strategic objectives, emphasising the importance of the transfer of knowledge amongst member states.
The framework for action also proposes the creation of an international convening mechanism for validation of artificial intelligence and digital health solutions.
[28] In Europe, a multi-stakeholder collaboration has started, aiming to harmonise clinical data and develop a 21st-century ecosystem for real work on health research in the region.
