In the session titled Whose data is it anyway? Medical databases, privacy and trust, Tim was joined by a panel of speakers who discussed the uses and accessibility of healthcare databases and whether the benefits of data-sharing outweigh the disadvantages.
The Institute of Ideas’ annual festival promotes the lively exchanges of views, and this session brought together professionals with widely-varying opinions. The panelists were:
Tim said that more and better data is needed in the NHS in order to address two important issues:
In his speech, he stated that, "In the next two hours, it is estimated that there will be more than 5,000 medication errors in English hospitals. We don’t have the data to analyse those errors – so people will be harmed; while we argue about the merits of more and better data."
He also said that, "We need data to tackle inequity and social injustice. Wider dissemination of well-presented and accessible data will change public behaviour for the better – whether in terms of lifestyle management or choice of doctor or hospital."
He went on to make the point that until Dr Foster published an analysis of standardised death rates in 2001, no where else in the world had that information been used for national comparisons and made public. That first report revealed the scandalous fact that death rates varied between English hospitals by as much as 76 per cent.
Now, seven years later, after continued publishing of such analysis, the variation is down to 53 per cent – an improvement, but still far too high.
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