Why Big Data Could Pose Big Problems for Healthcare Privacy

Advances in technology have made massive changes in health care. Dozens of life-saving innovations and treatment options help to extend the average lifespan and improve the life for people who are ailing.

Health care wouldnt be nearly as excellent without recent technology, and the demand for tech-savvy health professionals continues is growing.

Perhaps the most momentous of technological advances involves the use of big data in medical care. Thanks to a constant flow of information that entails both private and public information, health-care organizations are capable of better diagnoses and courses of treatment than ever.

But theres a dark side to technology and big data in health care that isnt often discussed, however: the alarming frequency and volume of privacy breaches. Though violations of HIPAA have been occurred for years, researchers argue theres more now, thanks to the high volume of data involved.

Its difficult to keep track of all that information without letting some slip out here and there. In addition, we have better ways of tracking privacy violations now. Technology provides new ways to record and track privacy breaches. We have a much better idea where information has been slipping through the cracks.

Theres also a risk of privacy disappearing altogether because of the effort to generate more data in the health-care sector. Such data could be extremely useful for future advances and to ensure proper care, but sometimes this means the information isnt as secure as it should be, even if its sacrifice might serve a greater good.

Social media plays a major role in this. Activity there is generally regarded as fair use. Anything published by an individual via social media is admissible in a court of law, and can therefore be accessed for patient diagnosis.

Techs are working on algorithms that will encompass both data from a doctors visit and any publicly posted private information. The end result might be patients who are treatable only because their public information was made public, which many might judge to qualify as a breach of privacy.

Big data requires that information, says Gerard Magill, health-care ethics professor at Duquesne University, referring to the information used to make proper diagnoses. Its non-negotiable. Individual privacy is gone for the common good.

To illustrate the way this kind of privacy breach could work in favor of diagnosis and care, David Lazarus, a health journalist shared the following example:

A patient complains to their doctor about losing weight. That patient is also taking a cholesterol medication and has also posted a Facebook status, for example, about feeling stressed due to divorce. Or they have posted on LinkedIn looking for a new job. A big data algorithm would be able to connect all those dots and alert that patients doctor to whats going on and that the patient may be running a risk of a heart attack. Then, the doctor would be able to immediately intervene.

This is just one of the many ways that private information might be gleaned through an array of public sources. In cases where the interference in private affairs is necessary for the persons health, this kind of intervention would typically be welcome.

Its difficult to attempt a thorough analysis without all the facts, but now doctors could have the opportunity to glean information from sources that were inaccessible in past decades.

However, there is some understandable opposition to this approach. The Affordable Care Act has some specific provisions that apply the individual insurance market to protect certain privacies. Legislatures are also pushing to develop laws that will protect such privately posted information, which would shut off much of the inflow of data in the medical sector.

A compromise would be the preferable solution. Patients are understandably worried about sharing their data and having it get stolen, but its worthwhile to insert provisions to cover doctors who seek to make a fully qualified diagnosis.

Most would agree that a life saved through big data would be worth the trouble.