Israel allotted $287 million (1 billion shekels) for a project that would allow researchers and private companies to access the country's health data, according to Reuters.
Israel's population of nearly 9 million make up four health maintenance organizations that maintain members' health records electronically, which creates a huge medical database the government wants to tap into.
"This is a major asset and we want to make it accessible to researchers and developers in order to achieve two things: one is preventive medicine, and the second is personal medicine tailored to each individual," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his cabinet March 25, according to Reuters.
Here are five things to know about Israel's big data push in healthcare.
1. Sharing digital health records affords researchers — particularly drugmakers — an opportunity to pursue big data analytics, which can be used to derive insights into how medications perform in real life.
2. Mr. Netanyahu said world leaders and international companies already expressed interest in the project, and Israel could expect billions in revenue.
3. Nadav Davidovitch, MD, PhD, head of the Public Health School at Ben Gurion University, expressed concerns about privacy and medical confidentiality.
4. Dr. Davidovitch said private companies could profit through the proposed publicly-funded database but still make medications that are unaffordable to many.
5. Mr. Netanyahu's office clarified protections would be established to ensure privacy, information security and restricted access. Patients would also be able to refuse the use of their information for research.
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