Jamie Heywood: Forget Medical Privacy
Jamie Heywood (…) hopes consumers will (…) share (their health) data with one another via online communities such as PatientsLikeMe, which he cofounded in 2004.
“We the people have the right to take possession of a complete copy of our individual health data, without delay, at minimal or no cost.”
Heywood admits that there may be pitfalls—the prospect, for example, that employers could weed out workers with rare diseases. But by his estimate, tens of thousands of lives are lost each year because health data doesn’t flow freely. “You’re talking an entire Vietnam War annually,” he says, “versus a couple of lost jobs.”
Earlier this month, Jamie also gave a rapid fire presentation on the future of medicine at the 2009 Gov 2.0 Summit:
