The coming fight over who controls digital health data
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The coming fight over who controls digital health data
Spending for consumer digital healthcare companies is set to explode in the next few years; the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology is currently reviewing the requirements for data sharing with the Department of Health and Human Services, and their initiatives will unlock a wave of data access never before seen in the U.S. healthcare system.
Already, startups and large technology companies are jockeying for position over how to leverage this access and take advantage of new sensor technologies that provide unprecedented windows into patient health.
Venture capital investors are expected to invest roughly $50 billion in approximately 4,500 startups in the healthcare industry, according to data from CB Insights. In all, there have been 3,409 investments made in the healthcare market through the third quarter of 2019, with 31% of those deals done in what CB Insights identifies as digital health companies.
The explosion of data is unprecedented and already companies like Apple and Google are jockeying for control over how that data will be served up to healthcare practitioners and patients.
Chart courtesy of CB Insights
Apple and Google are setting out two divergent paths for handling patient data. For patient advocates, there's a clear winner, and as startups look to play in these emerging ecosystems, it's what the patient wants that may matter most.
"The second that this data hits those shiny Silicon Valley apps, instead of being under HIPAA that's covered, you become a user and you have no rights," says one patient advocate.
Last week, after reports in The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, Google confirmed the details of a partnership with re