Health Data, Horses, and Carts

One of the topics to be taken up at tomorrow's meeting at UCLA of the Regents' Health Services Committee is "Promoting Strong Data Governance at UC Health." There is a lengthy report as part of the agenda that deals with such issues as use of patient data for research in an ethical manner. Issues of such matters as informed patient consent are included in the report. Of course, this is a worthy topic for the Regents to consider.

However, yours truly cannot help wondering if the question of cybersecurity is neglected. The biggest lapses with regard to patient data at the moment seem to occur through data breaches, either from the health insurers or from providers including UC. Nobody gives consent to those breaches, informed or not. To be fair, there is brief reference to "data security" in the report. But putting the cart before the horse comes to mind.

You can find the Regents' agenda item at:

https://regents.universi.tyofcalifornia.edu/regmeet/june24/h4.pdf.

The lengthy report is at:

https://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/regmeet/june24/h4attach1.pdf.