Building and maintaining public trust to support the secondary use of personal health data

Large-scale availability of personal health data, together with improved data analytic capabilities presents enormous opportunities to transform health services and improve patient and population health. Capturing the benefits of this data revolution requires the secondary sharing of personal health data, which raises concerns over data protection, privacy and security. Successfully addressing these concerns while facilitating secondary data use is complex and relies on establishing and sustaining trust at the individual and societal level. Trust can be secured through clear data governance, public and health practitioner engagement, developing comprehensive consent procedures where needed, and implementing technical solutions to safeguard cyber security