Balancing Risks and Opportunities: Data-Empowered-Health Ecosystems

Abstract

This viewpoint paper addresses the ongoing challenges and opportunities within the data-for-health ecosystem, drawing insights from a multistakeholder workshop. Despite notable progress in the digitization of health care systems, data sharing and interoperability remain limited, so the full potential of health care data is not realized. There is a critical need for data ecosystems that can enable the timely, safe, efficient, and sustainable collection and sharing of health care data. However, efforts to meet this need face risks related to privacy, data protection, security, democratic governance, and exclusion. Key challenges include poor interoperability, inconsistent approaches to data governance, and concerns about the commodification of data. While emerging platforms such as social media play a growing role in gathering and sharing health information, their integration into formal data systems remains limited. A robust and secure data-for-health ecosystem requires stronger frameworks for data governance, interoperability, and citizen engagement to build public trust. This paper argues that reframing health care data as a common good, improving the transparency of data acquisition and processing, and promoting the use of application programming interfaces (APIs) for real-time data access are essential to overcoming these challenges. In addition, it highlights the need for international norms and standards guided by multisector leadership, given the multinational nature of data sharing. Ultimately, this paper emphasizes the need to balance risks and opportunities to create a socially acceptable, secure, and effective data-sharing ecosystem in health care.

Keywords: application programming interfaces; data privacy; data protection; data sharing; decision-making; digital healthcare; ecosystems; health policy; healthcare system; social media; technologies.