Consumers more discerning about health data sharing: survey

Dive Temporary:

Shoppers are keen to share their well being information, however they’re changing into pickier about which entities they’ll present that data to, in line with a survey from consultancy and digital well being enterprise capital agency Rock Well being. 
Ninety % of respondents stated they’d share their information with at the least one healthcare entity, the survey discovered. Whereas 64% reported they’d provide information to a health care provider or clinician, solely 7% would share with a expertise firm.
Shoppers have been additionally keen to share information with fewer entities in 2023 in contrast with 2020. The wariness is a warning for the sector, as information sharing is vital to informing new therapies, learning illness tendencies and coaching healthcare synthetic intelligence fashions, the report stated. 

Dive Perception:

The 2023 survey, which requested greater than 8,000 U.S. adults about digital well being and digital care, discovered the overwhelming majority of shoppers have been nonetheless keen to share their well being information, just like outcomes from 2022 and 2020. Survey outcomes from 2021 have been excluded attributable to methodological adjustments. 

However when requested about sharing with specific entities, the proportion of respondents who have been keen to share dropped throughout practically all teams. For instance, 72% stated they’d provide information to a health care provider or clinician in 2020, in contrast with 70% in 2022 and solely 64% final 12 months. 

Total, contributors have been keen to share their information with fewer entities: On common, they reported they would offer their well being information to 2.7 entities in 2023, in contrast with 3.4 in 2020. 

Hesitation round information sharing would possibly relate partially to safety, report authors Madelyn Knowles, Adriana Krasniansky and Ashwini Nagappan wrote. Shoppers see information about massive information breaches or cyberattacks, and so they’ll need healthcare organizations to spend money on cybersecurity. 

The survey additionally requested shoppers about digital care and use of at-home diagnostics, tendencies that accelerated throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

Final 12 months, 76% of respondents reported having ever used digital care, just like surveys in earlier years. Those that had just lately used telehealth stated they selected it for better comfort, shorter wait instances and the need to see a particular supplier who wasn’t accessible in-person.

Most shoppers had additionally used house diagnostic checks. Seventy-two % stated they’d beforehand used an at-home check, like diagnostics for fertility, sexually transmitted infections or COVID-19. However 64% of them had completely taken COVID-19 checks, suggesting shoppers aren’t as acquainted with different forms of house diagnostics.