Presentation by Kate LeMay, ANDS, on 1 November 2017, to the 'Patient views on data sharing' ANDS webinar.
Recordings, slides, transcripts, links for all health and medical webinars are at: http://www.ands.org.au/working-with-data/sensitive-data/medical-and-health/webinars-health-and-medical
Statistical modeling in pharmaceutical research and development.
Research into people's attitudes to use of health data
1. Kate LeMay
Research into people’s attitudes to use
of health data
Senior Research Data Specialist
1 November 2017
2. Secondary use of health record data for research purposes
48%
45%
7%
Australia Speaks (Research Australia)
Strongly Support
Somewhat support
Oppose
Australia Speaks. Research Australia. 2017. Available from
https://researchaustralia.org/reports/public-opinion-polling-2017/ Page 13
3. 42%
34%
10%
11%
3%
Medical records in medical research if data was
anonymised (UK)
Very willing
Farily willing
Fairly unwilling
Very unwilling
Don't know
Wellcome Monitor. Wellcome Trust. 2015. Available from https://wellcome.ac.uk/what-we-do/our-
work/public-views-medical-research
4. 26%
32%
18%
10%
14%
Identifiable health information for research
purposes (NSW)
Strongly agree
Slightly agree
Undecided
Slightly disagree
Strongly disagree
NSW 2017 Community Attitudes Towards Privacy Report. Information and Privacy Commission
NSW. 2017. Available from https://www.ipc.nsw.gov.au/news-media/news/nsw-2017-community-
attitudes-towards-privacy-report
5. “Understanding Patient Data supports better
conversations about the uses of health information.
Our aim is to explain how and why data can be used
for care and research, what’s allowed and what’s not,
and how personal information is kept safe. We work
with patients, charities and healthcare professionals to
champion responsible uses of data.”
www.understandingpatientdata.org.uk
6. Development of a Framework for Secondary Use of
My Health Record Data
https://www.myhealthrecorddata.healthconsult.com.au/
7. References
Australia Speaks. Research Australia. 2017. Available from https://researchaustralia.org/reports/public-opinion-polling-
2017/ Page 13
Australian Community Attitudes to Privacy Survey. Office of the Australian Information Commissioner. 2017. Available
from https://www.oaic.gov.au/engage-with-us/community-attitudes/australian-community-attitudes-to-privacy-survey-
2017
NSW 2017 Community Attitudes Towards Privacy Report. Information and Privacy Commission NSW. 2017. Available
from https://www.ipc.nsw.gov.au/news-media/news/nsw-2017-community-attitudes-towards-privacy-report
Understanding Patient Data. Wellcome Trust UK. 2017. Available from https://understandingpatientdata.org.uk/
Especially ‘How do people feel about the use of data?” https://understandingpatientdata.org.uk/how-do-people-feel-
about-use-data
Wellcome Monitor. Wellcome Trust. 2015. Available from https://wellcome.ac.uk/what-we-do/our-work/public-views-
medical-research
Developing a framework for the secondary use of My Health Record data. Australian Government Department of
Health. 2017. Available from
https://consultations.health.gov.au/health-systems-policy-division/developing-a-framework-for-the-secondary-use-of-
my/ and https://www.myhealthrecorddata.healthconsult.com.au/
Spencer K, Sanders C, Whitley EA, Lund D, Kaye J, Dixon WG. Patient Perspectives on Sharing Anonymized
Personal Health Data Using a Digital System for Dynamic Consent and Research Feedback: A Qualitative Study.
Eysenbach G, ed. Journal of Medical Internet Research. 2016;18(4):e66. doi:10.2196/jmir.5011.
Charlotte J. Haug. N Engl J Med 2017; Whose Data Are They Anyway? Can a Patient Perspective Advance the Data-
Sharing Debate? 376:2203-2205 DOI: 10.1056/NEJMp1704485
8. Takeaway messages
• People support reuse of
medical data for research
purposes (but not 100%!).
• Appropriate consent is
important.
• Levels of consent for data
sharing may be an option.
9. Senior Research Data Specialist
kate.lemay@ands.org.au
Kate LeMay
With the exception of third party images or where otherwise indicated, this work
is licensed under the Creative Commons 4.0 International Attribution Licence.
ANDS is supported by the Australian
Government through the National Collaborative
Research Infrastructure Strategy Program.
Monash University leads the partnership with
the Australian National University and CSIRO.
Notas del editor
Research Australia is a national alliance representing the health and medical research sector. They commission an annual opinion survey about health and medical research. This year it showed that 93% of respondents supported the use of their health record data for research purposes. Interestingly, this survey doesn’t specify whether that data is identifiable or not.
A study commissioned by the Wellcome Trust, which is the UK’s version of NHMRC, asked respondents how willing they would be to allow their medical records to be used in a medical research study, if the information given to researchers excluded their name, date of birth, address, and contact details.
In 2015 the proportion very or fairly willing was 77%
In 2012 it was 60%, so support has increased over that time.
The NSW Information and Privacy Commission report from this year found that 58% of respondents agreed that they were willing for their identifiable health information to be used for research purposes. I wonder if the result would be different if they specified the information would not be identifiable, like how PHRN does data linkage in Australia? For more information about data linkage for research in Australia watch next week’s webinar.
Understanding patient data is a website owned by the Wellcome Trust in the UK, so some of the information there is UK specific but a lot is generalisable. It has a collection of studies about patient views on health data reuse, information about words to use when talking about data with patients, how to best engage the public and patients with issues around uses of patient data, and more. I recommend taking a look at it.
If anyone is interested, the Department of Health has currently commissioned a consulting company to develop a framework for the secondary use of my health record data. They have a written submission process, workshops, webinars and interviews. So if you want to know more, check out their website.
These references are for the research I showed, plus some more of relevance to this area. These slides will be available after the webinar on the ANDS website.