As we study the enormous cultural shifts taking place in the current health care environment, fueled in particular by consumer demands to assert greater power over their own health information, we must ask ourselves: How can American health care institutions, global Internet brands, and the 21st-century patient work together to create a sort of “harmonic convergence” that benefits and protects them all?
However, consumer demands for greater access to their health information and the availability of new technologies must be tempered with a well-balanced set of policies to protect the rights of all of the players in this scenario: the technology developers, the health care providers, and of course, the consumer.
Many of the personal health data connections and services discussed in this presentation already exist and are being introduced at larger scales, with technology leaders such as Microsoft and Google providing new personal health information management tools at an ever-growing pace.
This presentation illustrates how such a set of policies and practices can be developed and implemented to enhance trust among consumers—as illustrated by the character Millie—and the organizations that capture, share, or receive information about them.
