Last week, any fears we had about our personal health data being safe were intensified when the records of tens of thousands of psychotherapy patients in Finland were stolen. As if this wasn’t enough to increase our anxiety, these confidential records were used to blackmail over 40,000 patients.
So, after this, should I still be sharing my data?
by Nicola Davies
On 1 July 2020, Data Saves Lives held its first webinar titled ‘All About Data Saves Lives.’ The webinar focused on explaining the health data challenge that DSL aims to tackle, as well as the DSL mission, main activities and how the initiative is organised and governed. At the end of the webinar, attendees had the opportunity to ask the panel of speakers questions. Time did not permit us to address all of the questions posed during the webinar. In this blog, you can find our answers to those unanswered questions.
Earlier in the year, a casual conversation with a colleague in Croatia uncovered a controversial viewpoint. He said that many of his patients and members of the public were more afraid of a COVID-19 diagnosis than a cancer diagnosis. I’d heard similar rumblings from colleagues in the UK, but there were no data to say whether this was true or not. So, we set about collecting data that would give us a precise insight into the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on cancer services and cancer patients in the UK.
by Prof. Mark Lawler