In this blog post, we continue to highlight our HDC Affiliates, who they are and how they are helping to liberate health data to improve health and health care and drive innovation. Below we hear from our Ohio Affiliate, Viable Synergy. See what Sunnie Southern, Founder and CEO, says are her hopes for health data 20 years from now. Check out their HDC Affiliate page.
The Health Data Consortium is strengthened by regional affiliates working to promote the ideals of open data in health around the country. Find out more about our affiliate program. If you are interested in becoming an HDC Affiliate, please get in touch!
HDC: Tell us about your organization and your interest in health data.
Sunnie Southern (SS): Viable Synergy‘s mission is to connect people with the tools and information they need to improve health for themselves and their family no matter where they are in the world. Access to health data is imperative to ensure that people and their health care providers have the critical information needed to make the most appropriate health and health care decisions.
HDC: Why did you join Health Data Consortium as an Affiliate?
SS: Because I believe that if we are going to transform health, people need to have appropriate access to health data - their own data, their patients’ data, data for research, population data for understanding market trends – while protecting individual privacy.
I saw the HDC Affiliate program as an opportunity to join other innovative people and organizations around the country to improve access to health data.
HDC: What insights did you get from attending this year’s Health Datapalooza?
SS: It was a wonderful opportunity to “recharge the batteries” by spending time with my data liberation tribe. It is the one opportunity each year to connect with people from across the health care continuum (patients, providers, insurers, policymakers, manufacturers, startups, IT people, etc.) that are painstakingly working to make health care better for everyone.
4) What would you like to see for the health data movement in a year from now? 5 years? 20 years?
Now: I would like my Mom (and all Moms), to be able to access her health information (data) easily in a format that she can understand and use to make informed decisions about her health and her finances.
In 5 years: I would like for health care providers to be able to recommend/prescribe self-tracking tools like FitBit and use the data collected to make more informed decisions without risk of penalties from regulatory agencies like the FDA.
In 20 years: I hope that we are not even talking about data anymore because we have the tools we need to passively collect bits of information everywhere and turn it into insights. These insights will be integrated into our lives in a ubiquitous and non-intrusive way to inform us of the critical information we need to make the best decisions possible for ourselves and to support the ones we love.
I also hope that we can quickly begin to leverage data to find the “true right choices” so that HEALTH can become more affordable and accessible. I look forward to the day when we are no longer forced to decide between buying our food or medication or paying for our parent’s heart surgery or our child’s college tuition. I believe that day is possible if we work together and are willing to work differently.