Medical technology companies sign data sharing pledge

10-03-2016

Some 49 healthcare technology companies have signed the Patient Safety Movement’s Open Data Pledge, a public pledge to share their data to promote patient safety.

The pledge is designed to foster a marketplace of data analytics to encourage entrepreneurs to develop novel uses of health data that will improve patient safety and reduce preventable deaths.

If enough medical technology companies share the data their products are purchased for, it allows engineers and researchers to develop predictive algorithms that notify clinicians and patients of dangerous trends. The pledge does not ask any company to share protected or proprietary data or not follow all the privacy laws.

“From nine companies in 2013 to now, 49 companies have made the pledge to share their data with whomever can use the data to create analytics and algorithms that may detect the ailment of the patient, and predict the patient’s health and direction of health to help caregivers prevent harm before it happens,” said Joe Kiani, founder of the Patient Safety Movement Foundation.

“We thank each and every one of these companies who are leading the way to safer patient care by giving their data. With data sharing, we will hopefully also unlock the mysteries behind cancer and heart disease and help identify therapies that are most likely to work. So what we’ve started here to treat the third leading cause of death – preventable patient harm, may one day even help the first and second causes of death.”

Patient Safety Movement’s Open Data Pledge, Joe Kiani, Patient Safety Movement Foundation, Medical technology, US