Balancing privacy, policy, and innovation is important to achieve harmony in health care, but, it is also difficult. While both population health and patient centered care seek to improve health care, at some level they are fundamentally at odds. Managing the health of population in a sustainable and scalable way requires uniformity of care across large groups for prevention, wellness, resource utilization, etc. Often, the most predictive clues about our health, exist in information that lives outside of traditional health care. This can be unearthed with the help of new innovations in Big Data. With the right policies and safeguards in place, trust can be established that will give individuals greater comfort and confidence to share information with their healthcare providers.
Harry Greenspun, MD and Senior Advisor for Health Care Technology and Transformation at the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions talks more about it here: http://blogs.deloitte.com/centerforhealthsolutions/2014/03/balancing-privacy-policy-and-innovation-to-achieve-harmony-in-health-care.html?id=gx:2sm:3tw:chsblog:awa:chs:032214:deloittehealth#