PANDORA'S BOX

IF SHARING YOUR HEALTH DATA KEEPS YOU OUT OF THE HOSPITAL, IS IT WORTH IT?

- DAMIEN MARTIN

With big data, you can track just about anything these days. That can be used for good or nefarious purposes. In the right hands it can saves lives; in the wrong hands it can ruin them. As with any tool, its efficacy depends on who is wielding it and for what purpose. Of all the records out there, few are more sensitive than health data. It’s right up there with financial data as among the most intimate details about our lives. It requires careful handling.

An Ounce of Prevention

Nearly 750,000 hospital admissions— approximately 7% of the total hospitalisations in Australia annually—are avoidable, says nib Group managing director Mark Fitzgibbon. That’s why nib and US-based insurer Cigna have each chipped in $10 million to create an independent health data science and services company. The new venture will mine as much data as it can from members, ranging from medical history and insurance claims to biological and genetic data, to predict what ailments they are likely to suffer from and when.

Based on the findings from the data, the company will recommend steps members can take to manage risk: dietary changes, exploratory scans, and the like. The idea is as old as medicine: An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Risk management and early detection will save insurers, providers, and patients money in the long run.