Imagine that you can authorize the doctor to access your personal information and health history at the start of a medical consultation. By doing so, it's possible to speed up care, improve medical assistance, and offer accurate diagnoses. This is the concept of Open Health, which aims to digitally integrate all patients' health information and make the healthcare ecosystem more transparent and efficient.
Sharing personal data between patients and healthcare professionals brings benefits, but the viability of this concept is still being debated, particularly about data security and privacy. Given the difficulties in implementing new technologies, advances in artificial intelligence (AI), such as biometric authentication and cloud platforms, provide reliable solutions for secure data sharing.
Want to learn more about the concept of Open Health? Keep reading!
What is Open Health?
Open Health aims to facilitate communication between all healthcare providers, such as hospitals, health insurance companies, and laboratories, by simplifying the exchange of patient information and documents.
In practice, patients would authorize the use of their personal information for any healthcare service, resulting in more assertive care and more accurate diagnoses. Although a relatively new concept, Open Health is linked to Law 3.814/2020, which aims to develop a digital platform to unify patient information and make health data available in an accessible, collaborative, and transparent way. Healthcare providers will be able to create personalized solutions that address the individual needs of each patient, while individuals themselves will benefit from higher-quality services.
Open Health in Brazil
When we look at the Brazilian scenario, the debate on Open Health is still delicate, as any proposal that encourages the circulation of personal data raises questions. Also, the implementation of this concept depends on a number of factors, such as the technological infrastructure, the training of health professionals, and the guarantee of the security and privacy of patient data.
On the other hand, the government is interested in promoting the initiative to stimulate competition and improve healthcare services. In 2023, the government created the Office of Digital Health and Information (SEIDIGI) to promote public digital health policies and advanced plans for the Digital Health Strategy, a health data integration and unification initiative that aims to consolidate information by 2028.
What are the benefits of Open Health?
Technological evolution is increasingly present in the educational and financial sectors, and healthcare is no different. The Open Health concept aims to facilitate data collaboration between different segments of the sector for the benefit of hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, healthcare providers, patients, and professionals.
Here are some of the benefits directly related to this model:
Speed clinical decision-making
Doctors from any clinic or hospital will have access to the patient's complete history after data access authorization. This agility makes a difference, especially in emergencies where the individual is unable to provide information.
Personalized health plans
Health insurance companies will be able to analyze customer data more accurately. This makes it possible to offer personalized plans and reduce the costs associated with the unpredictability of information. As a result, the patient's financial investment is reduced.
Long-term cost savings
Another benefit is the reduction of private medical costs through data interoperability. This means that the doctor can quickly access the patient's medical history and avoid repeated examinations.
What are the main challenges?
Despite the benefits, Open Health faces many challenges. The main ones are related to the consequences of using and storing sensitive data and raising awareness among patients and professionals. Given this scenario, it is necessary to establish strict control over information and ensure security in virtual environments where data is shared openly.
In practice, this means developing effective mechanisms to ensure the protection and confidentiality of information, even in the face of adverse situations such as a cyberattack.
Public awareness
One of the challenges is convincing patients of the importance of a particular system and its related benefits. In this process, confidence in the security of the systems and the guarantee of privacy is essential if there is to be rapid acceptance and adoption by patients.
Guarantee data reliability and quality
For the analytics performed by all participants in the Open Health ecosystem to be useful to patients and healthcare institutions, the data must be reliable and up-to-date. In this regard, BioPass ID's Multibiometrics biometric recognition technology is one of the best ways to ensure user security. The functionality can be integrated into any system and provides high-precision authentication, biometric identification, and validation of individuals.
How to prepare for Open Health?
In this article, you learned about the concept of Open Health and why it is a promising development in healthcare. The initiative aims to simplify the sharing of data between different healthcare institutions and to provide a more assertive and personalized level of care.
Despite the many benefits, it is important to remember that healthcare institutions and patients must adapt to Open Health to protect information. The success of this concept depends on technological advances and a continued commitment to privacy. In this sense, we have seen that BioPass ID's Multibiometrics biometric recognition technology can be a great ally in data security.
Now that you're familiar with the concept of Open Health, be sure to read the following article: Healthcare 5.0: what it is, main technologies and benefits.
