The Value of Data in Healthcare: Beyond Nudging

4 December 2019

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Datafication, digitisation and automation in healthcare and medicine create new opportunities for the use of patient data, ranging from digital epidemiology to “nudging” patients to adopt healthier lifestyles. This takes place in a political economy that is characterised by profound power asymmetries between data subjects and corporate data users. Despite these asymmetries, important political questions - such as who benefits from data use, and how - receive relatively little attention in policy and public debates. Part of the reason for this is that current data governance frameworks and policies do not differentiate between data uses that serve corporate v. public interests. In her talk on December 4, 2019 Prof. Dr. Barbara Prainsack will propose ways to make questions about the public value of data use more explicit. She will also unpack the frequent assumption that the use of patient data for nudging is beneficial. She will argue that we should use patient data to help build better institutions, and address social determinants of health, instead of focusing on tackling individual behaviour.