An Apple a day

An Apple a day

As with all newtechnologies, pitfalls accompany the promise.

Hucksters will launch apps that do notwork. But with regulators

demandingoversight ofapps that present risks to patients,

users will harm only theirwallets. Not everyone will want to

take active control of their own health care; plenty will want

the professionals to manage everything. Fine. Data can be

pored over by those who are interested, while those who are

not can opt to share data automaticallywith trusted providers.

The benefits ofnewtechnologies often flowdisproportionately

to the rich. Those fears are mitigated by the incentives

that employers, governments and insurers have to invest in

cost-efficient preventive care for all. Alphabet has recently

launched a firm called Cityblock Health, for example, which

plans to trawl through patients’ data to provide better care for

low-income citydwellers, manyofthem covered byMedicaid,

an insurance programme for poorer Americans.

Other risks are harder to deal with. Greater transparency

may encourage the hale and hearty not to take out health insurance.

Theymay even make it harder for the unwell to find

cover. Regulations can slowthatprocess—byrequiring insurers

to ignore genetic data, for example—but not stop it. Security is

another worry. The more patient data are analysed in the

cloud or shared with different firms, the greater the potential

threat of hacking or misuse. Almost a quarter of all data

breaches in America happen in health care. Health firms

should face stringent penalties iftheyare slapdash about security,

but it is naive to expect that breaches will never happen.

Will the benefits ofmakingdata more widelyavailable outweigh

such risks? The signs are that they will. Plenty of countries

are now opening up their medical records, but few have

gone as far as Sweden. It aims to give all its citizens electronic

access to their medical records by 2020; over a third of Swedes

have already set up accounts. Studies showthat patients with

such access have a better understanding of their illnesses, and

that their treatment is more successful. Trials in America and

Canada have produced not just happier patients but lower

costs, as clinicians fielded fewer inquiries. That should be no

surprise. No one has a greater interest in your health than you

do. Trust in DoctorYou.