Ask HN: Is it possible to make patient health records open source?
Hi there!<p>With Google and Amazon pushing into the healthcare space and collecting lots of available patient health records, I was wondering if it&#x27;s possible to make that data open source so scientists and technical people all over the world can work on solutions, instead of only for-profit companies.<p>I&#x27;ve been wondering if it&#x27;s necessary to build a company to do it - and your answers would greatly inform my decision and path to start one.<p>The following are the questions I&#x27;ve been pondering about - and would love your feedback:<p>- Nomenclature and data formats: how hard is it to develop a common language for many different, complex data formats with different naming conventions across countries? What exists already, what has been tried before?<p>- Are academic institutions (think Johns Hopkins University) allowed to share datasets publicly? I know the answer is &#x27;Yes&#x27; since lots are already doing it, but what are specific (technical and legal) barriers to consider when doing this at scale and developing one platform?<p>- What are generally big challenges and problems for researchers in the medical sciences, or anyone else that professionally works with patient health data?<p>- I know data privacy is a big challenge - no secret. But does anyone have experience with specific technical and legal issues when it come to anonymisation, publishing data from secondary sources and their legal compliance? Please share!