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AnonTechie [soylentnews.org] writes:

Data generated by your body is routinely captured and sold by healthcare companies. Shouldn’t you benefit from it, too ?

Getting access to your medical information is supposed to be good for you, and good for the country. It’s supposed to help you take charge of your health, and save the beleaguered US healthcare system loads of money. Getting your medical record can reveal life-changing information: Symptoms you should be watching, drugs you shouldn’t take, even diagnoses you didn’t know you had. So the federal government has poured billions into making it easier for people to access their medical information.

In reality your medical information is anything but free. If you would take on the challenge of claiming your data from those who hold it hostage, you must prepare for the journey. You may be forced to scale massive bureaucracies, combat insane copyright laws, sneak into secret data stashes, hack into medical devices — or perhaps even locate a working fax machine.

Scientists mine this “data exhaust” for previously undetected patterns in health and illness. Pharmaceutical companies analyze prescription data to figure out how to sell more drugs to both doctors and patients. Data analytics companies purchase millions of electronic health records, lab test results, and insurance claims reports, slicing it and dicing it to expose patterns that weren’t visible before. These data-mining startups, a fast-growing sector of the digital health industry, brought in more than $400 million in venture capital last year. They sell custom reports to all manner of buyers: employers trying to predict how much they’ll spend on healthcare, companies selling products and services to hospitals, and hospitals looking for ways to charge more for their services.

All of these people can get their hands on your data and make money off it. But for you — the wellspring of all this value — it is not so easy, even though it can be far more precious to you.

https://backchannel.com/our-medical-data-must-become-free-f6d533db6bed#.dg1hlcs5f [backchannel.com]

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