Using medical data for the common good

Human genome
A digital representation of the human genome August 15, 2001 at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. Each color represents one the four chemical compenents of DNA.
Mario Tama/Getty Images

Effectively storing medical data while safeguarding patient privacy is an issue central to the work of both John Wilbanks and Dr. William Yasnoff.

Yasnoff and Wilbanks both support the idea of pooling medical research and records, including personal information about genomes and disease risk, and making that pool of information available to health researchers.

They join The Daily Circuit Thursday, Jan. 24 to discuss the ways in which we can use health care information for the common good.

Wilbanks said in his TED Talk:

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I'm proposing...that we reach into our bodies and we grab the genotype, and we reach into the medical system and we grab our records, and we use it to build something together.

Watch his talk:

READ MORE ABOUT POOLING MEDICAL DATA:

Health Record Banking Alliance

The future of medical record technology (The Takeaway)

UnitedHealth debuts cloud computing for patient medical records (AP)

Researchers Mine Data From Clinic, Big Insurer (Wall Street Journal)

We Must Choose Privacy Or Medical Breakthroughs: Statisticians ID Anonymous Study Participants (TechCrunch)