With the growing adoption of mHealth, wearables and patient access to health information, health data privacy is also a growing concern.
The Health Research Institute at PricewaterhouseCoopers released a report on the top 10 health industry issues for 2015, a couple of which revolved around health IT and data security.
PWC surveyed 1,000 U.S. consumers and interviewed industry experts to gather their results.
Here are eight statistics on consumer concerns about health data privacy.
- Seventy-six percent of respondents are concerned about the general security of their medical data.
- Sixty-eight percent of survey respondents are concerned with the security of health data stored in mobile apps.
- More than half of respondents, 56 percent, said privacy and security of medical information might affect their decisions to tell physicians "everything" about their conditions.
- Just over half, 51 percent, said privacy and security of medical information would affect their decisions to participate in clinical trials.
- When it comes to balancing data security or convenience for accessing information, patients largely prioritize privacy. For example, 71 percent of respondents said data security of medical tests and imaging results were more important than convenience in accessing that information. Seventy-three percent are more concerned with privacy of physician notes and diagnoses than convenience. Sixty-five percent are more concerned with privacy of drug prescription information than easy access. However, for diet and exercise results, 68 percent of respondents were more interested in convenient access to the information.
More articles on health data privacy:
Americans unconcerned about health data privacy, poll shows
3 new challenges with HIPAA and data security
6 considerations for a hospital’s playbook to combat data breaches