What privacy, advertising and digital media trends will make headlines in 2015?  Digital Health for one,  Big Data for another.

Digital Health

The 2015 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) started yesterday.  Sessions like “Sensibles: The Smarter Side of Wearables” and “DIY Health: Consumer Accessible Innovation” suggest that the consumer health issues explored by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) last Spring (see our blog post here) are increasingly relevant.  Most notably, as more health-related information becomes digital, digital health businesses will need to revisit long-standing privacy, intellectual property protection, notice and consent practices that may not be well-suited to the more sensitive category of consumer-generated health information (CHI) (i.e., health-related information that consumers submit to or through mobile apps and devices).  In many cases, the law is underdeveloped and businesses must develop and implement their own best practices to demonstrate good faith as stewards of CHI.

We predict that CHI and the issues raised by its collection, use, disclosure and storage will stay on the FTC’s radar during 2015.  Perhaps the FTC will offer some insight about its position on CHI through guidance or regulatory activity related to a digital health business.

With mobile devices proliferating, the volume, versatility and variety of consumer-generated data, including CHI, also is proliferating.  CHI typically stands outside of HIPAA’s regulatory silo.  HIPAA regulates health plans, health care clearinghouses, health care providers who engage in standardized transactions with health plans and the business associates that assist health plans, clearinghouses and providers, and need protected health information to provide that assistance.   Mobile medical services and environments, however, typically fall outside of this framework: most mobile apps, for example, are used directly by consumers, and often at the direction of and under the control of plans and providers.  HIPAA may have, however, more reach into the growing business-to-business mobile app sector.

But, in the CHI arena, the sources of privacy and security regulation are murky.  Among likely hot topics in 2015 are:

• When is consumer-generated information also consumer-generated health information?
• Can data ever be “de-identified” or made anonymous in light of the so-called mosaic (or pointillist) effect?
• What role can the “pay with data” model play in consumer protection?
• Is all CHI deserving of the same level of protection?
• What sources of oversight exist and are they sufficient?

The news is ripe with references to data “privacy” and data “security,” but the sensitivity associated with health information requires thinking about data “stewardship” – a broader concept that encompasses not only privacy and security but also data asset management and data governance.  Data stewardship captures not only data as an asset, but also as an opportunity to earn public trust and confidence while preserving innovation. 

We predict that how to be good data stewards will be a critical issue for digital health businesses in 2015 and that forward-looking and transparent efforts at self-policing will be key to not only avoiding regulatory scrutiny but also fostering consumer trust.

Big Data

Big Data was big news [...]

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