More consumers open to sharing personal health data
Consumers appear to be opening up to sharing their personal health data, according to the results of a new survey.
Ninety percent of the 1,000 respondents to the Makovsky Health/Kelton Survey said they would have no problem sharing their healthcare data so long as the goal is to help researchers understand a disease or improve care or treatment options.
More than one-quarter (26 percent) would share their data regardless of anonymity; 23 percent would share their data if they could control which data were anonymous; and 40 percent would share if promised that all data would remain anonymous.
More than one-third of respondents said they would trust a disease website sponsored by a pharmaceutical company. A provider’s recommendation drove more than half of those visits followed by a peer’s recommendation. Respondents comfortable with sharing personal health data were significantly more likely to visit those websites.
Editor
Editor Beth earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism and master’s in health communication. She has worked in hospital, academic and publishing settings over the past 20 years. Beth joined TriMed in 2005, as editor of CMIO and Clinical Innovation + Technology. When not covering all things related to health IT, she spends time with her husband and three children.