The project involves a series of sensitive elements, such as privacy, access to technologies and the democratization of information
Digitize information from Brazilian medical records in a single system: the so-called model Open Health – could be a solution to bring greater transparency and agility to the country’s healthcare system. However, public and private efforts are still lacking to make this project feasible which, according to experts, is similar to the one Bank open.
In December 2022, the federal government issued a note stating that “to ensure greater transparency in complementary health services in the country, the Ministry of Health and the National integrative health agency (ANS) has prepared a document with proposals that aim to optimize health services in Brazil – the so-called Open Health model”.
According to the government, some areas, such as open data transparency and improving user experience, were given priority in the preparation of this document. “Integrating this additional health data into the National Health Data Network (RNDS) is an important step towards reducing the fragmentation of care between the public and private sectors.”
OR Byte contacted the Ministry of Health and ANS to clarify at what stage the development of Open Health is at.
According to ANS, the continuity of this project depends on the sending of resources by the Ministry of Health, which did not respond to the request for an interview.
For ANS, the integration of citizens’ health data – whether through the SUS, the health plan or through private assistance – is of fundamental importance for the construction of the Electronic Health Record (RES), which will allow citizens to have access to their data and health history in a simple and secure way.
However, the idea involves a number of sensitive elements, such as privacy, access to technologies, democratization of information, among others. With this, the Byte spoke to experts to understand how feasible – or not – this system would be in Brazil.
How does the Open Health concept work?
The goal of this ecosystem is to have health data in an open way, condensing information from different agents, such as health plans, hospitals, doctor’s offices, the pharmaceutical industry and SUS.
Each patient’s medical record may contain, for example, clinical data, test results and medical prescriptions.
“He [o paciente] You can decide to share your data with your doctor, through explicit consent, to help him monitor your health, diagnose diseases, treat them, among other procedures. This sharing generates greater efficiency in the coordination of care and reduces waste, such as repeating tests”, states the ANS in a note sent to Byte.
Partner and leader of the Health sector at the consultancy PwC Brasil, Bruno Porto, highlights the advantage of the open data system as the unification of information that brings a centralized view of the patient, thus enabling greater agility to the processes.
From a technical point of view, according to Porto, one of the difficulties would be the standardization in connecting one system to another.
“Technology is not an obstacle, but the regulatory issue is, that is, it requires very clear regulation,” says the expert.
“We have a long way to go to ensure the appropriate use and interoperability of data between different providers from an ethical point of view. It is a problem, we know that, historically, health data has a very high value in the underground market, it is data very sensitive under the LGPD (General Data Protection Law),” he says.
Legislation
Digital law lawyer and CTO of data protection consultancy DataLegal, Camila Studart, comments that before the LGPD no one had asked why they were forced to give their CPF at the pharmacy, nor was there any question about what was being done with your data or what the implications of this are.
“This lack of awareness and regulation has created an environment conducive to the exchange of health data without the consent of the owners. For example, this information has been used for targeted, often invasive marketing purposes based on individuals’ health conditions,” he said the lawyer.
According to Camila, although Brazil has made significant progress in terms of data regulation and is moving towards the digitalization of healthcare, there are still challenges to overcome to ensure a secure digital environment for sharing healthcare data.
“It requires continuous actions and cooperation from multiple actors, including the government, healthcare institutions, technology companies and users themselves, in accordance with the LGPD, with investments in technological infrastructure, education, constant monitoring, specific legislation and standards of interoperability,” says Studart.
The challenge regarding data privacy is also recognized by ANSWERwhich states that it has “a very firm commitment when it comes to sharing sensitive data and knows that it must follow terminology and interoperability standards that ensure the correct and secure use of this data”.
“Regulating the use of personal data, especially sensitive personal data related to health and the use of medical and hospital services, represents an important challenge: respecting the limits defined in the Brazilian regulatory framework for risk selection strategies and of price discrimination,” the agency included.
Discover the technologies that help our health
Technologies, artificial intelligence and Open Health
What would this technology look like? Well, some solutions can be thought of to create this ecosystem.
On the official website of Open Health, a movement created by the market to present this solution, we talk about technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI)blockchain and Internet of Things (IoT) as allies in the healthcare sector.
“AI, for example, can play a crucial role in early disease detection through the analysis of large volumes of medical data and images. Use cases associated with generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) range from personalization of treatments up to the early diagnosis of pathologies”, says the page.
Roberto Boclin, Data/AI architect at Dedalus, who does not work directly on this project, says that a specialized chat project could be created, which could serve all doctors of any specialty and for all locations in Brazil.
“In this, we will have a tool to create a diagnosis based on the information collected locally, assessments, symptoms, tests and indications provided by the portal itself, which is based on diagnoses, prognosis and results obtained, carried out throughout Brazil both in public networks and private,” explains Boclin.
According to him, Brazil already has the technology to develop a national medical report preparation system supported by artificial intelligence. However, it is necessary to innovate in a complex, standardized and sensitive universe, with a greater shortage of specialized and organized data.
“Each doctor will consume and submit their own diagnoses, prognoses and results, so that their data is part of a large specialized database organized by the generative artificial intelligence GenAI,” he adds.
Source: Terra
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