Health services are currently turning to the digitization of patient records. As in various fields in which it operates, digital brings solutions that make it possible to speed up services and improve efficiency. However, medical data differs from other types of data. Indeed, they imply great confidentiality. The processing of health data is tricky. Medical ethics prohibits the disclosure of information about a patient while the data is intended to be exploited. It will help if you are careful while hiring a healthcare social media landscape expert. Anything that goes out on social media can be risky as it is readily available. It isn’t easy to control what goes on social media and what does not. What are the real uses of medical data, and what are the regulations governing the data processes.

• It is important to define what medical data is?
• Who can use patient health data?
• For what reasons the collected data will be used?

What Is Medical Data?

Medical data is information relating to an individual’s physical or mental health. This information can be heart rate, blood type, genetic data, etc. The diagnosis, prescriptions, and care provided to patients are also health data. Data that is not by nature health data but is used for medical purposes is also qualified as medical data. Let us take the case of information on the number of steps taken by an individual in one day, his eating habits, weight, and height, which make it possible to study the causes of his obesity. This information would not constitute health data and can be used by healthcare social media landscape experts. In medical practice, there are three different categories of health data:

• Health data by nature
• Health data by crossing
• Health data by destination

By nature, health data provides direct information on a person’s state of health. Also, health data by crossing are those that only constitute medical data when crossed with other data. On the other hand, health data by destination is data that does not relate to a person’s health status but is collected in a medical context. It is essential to monitor data that goes live, and you need assistance from healthcare social media landscape experts to avoid transmission of trusted data. The health data can cite the patient’s identity, gender, marital status, sexual orientation, etc.

Who Can Use Patient Medical Data?

Medical data is collected from patients during their visit to a doctor, hospital, dentist, or other health establishments via a questionnaire offered at reception and questions during the consultation. There are also specialized mobile or web applications and connected objects that collect information on an individual’s state of health. Medical data is considered sensitive and is personal. They are subject to reinforced security and confidentiality standards to protect the patients’ rights. Their use is governed by specific legislation.

• The appointment of a data protection officer
• The keeping of a processing register
• Carrying out a risk analysis with the help of healthcare social media landscape experts

Thus, only people and organizations who have obtained the patient’s consent and comply with the regulations imposed by law can collect and use health data.

• Private health professionals (doctor, nurse, gynecologist, ophthalmologist, etc.)
• Health establishments (analytical laboratories, hospitals, clinics, etc.)
• Social security takes care of reimbursements
• The patient’s mutual health insurance

What Are the Uses of Health Data?

Health data is called real-time data because it is collected during a direct interview or via an object connected with the patient and not only by clinical tests. The method of collecting this data, combined with new technologies, makes it possible to obtain more precise, more detailed, and up-to-date information on the health status of patients. It is essential to maintain the data records but managing the landscape of medical facilities relies greatly on healthcare social media landscape experts.

One of the main objectives of the compilation of medical data is to provide personalized care to as many patients as possible. For this, all the data provided by each patient will be inserted into a database. They will then be used to define the appropriate treatments for each of them. Diagnostic errors are minimized thanks to the ability of technological tools to process several pieces of information simultaneously without omitting a single one. Medical data also avoids the prescription of incompatible drugs.

Medical Data Is As Useful For Patients As For Professionals

Thanks to health data, patients can benefit from personalized monitoring of the evolution of their condition on leaving the hospital. This medical data makes it possible to predict future health risks for the patient being monitored. Consultations can also be done remotely. In addition to personalized health, medical data can also be used for research. For health professionals, health data allows information to be exchanged. It is to define the best treatment for a patient and seek the advice of a specialist for a particular case. Medical data is also used to establish statistics on the health of a population. It helps the healthcare social media landscape experts to target the audience based on their demographical data.

Conclusion

Managers must guarantee patient anonymity as long as the data is collected. The patient can consult the data concerning him, request rectification, deletion, and limitation of the persons who have access to his data. There are many uses of medical data. Whether it is for the treatment of a patient or to advance in scientific research, data should comply with complete confidentiality. In addition, the collection, handling, and storage of these are regulated by strict legislation. Only useful information for his treatment should be requested from a patient. The data collected cannot be used without the person’s consent. The uses that will be made of these must be explained to them. So, it is better to get assistance from healthcare social media landscape experts to avoid misuse of data.