Patients are most likely to agree to share their health data with a physician, and least likely to want to share their data with a tech company, according to a Rock Health report.
Rock Health, a seed fund focused on digital health startups, surveyed nearly 4,000 adults in the U.S. in 2017 for its report on digital health adoption among healthcare consumers.
Here's how the participants responded when asked if they were willing to share their health data — such as medical records, genetic information or physical activity data — with various entities:
1. Physician: 86 percent
2. Health insurance company: 58 percent
3. Pharmacy: 52 percent
4. Research institution: 44 percent
5. Pharmaceutical company: 21 percent
6. Government organization: 13 percent
7. Tech company: 10 percent
Interestingly, the proportion of respondents willing to share their health data with a given entity almost entirely correlated with their confidence in the entity's security practices, according to Rock Health. This pattern suggests willingness to share health data may be tied to security concerns, rather than an organization's mission.
Here's how the same seven entities stacked up by the proportion of respondents who said they were "confident" or "somewhat confident" in their data security practices:
1. Physician: 87 percent
2. Pharmacy: 68 percent
3. Health insurance company: 60 percent
4. Research institution: 47 percent
5. Pharmaceutical company: 35 percent
6.Tech company: 24 percent
7. Government organization: 13 percent
To view Rock Health's report, click here.