ABSTRACT
By sharing healthcare data it is possible to deliver a modern, personalised and sustainable healthcare system. This chapter considers what progress has been made to this extent, and compares how healthcare data is shared in Europe and the USA. It compares USA and Europe because they face similar challenges, but more significantly, even with their very different health systems, both look to healthcare information technology as a critical means of addressing these challenges and are progressing in its adoption. The chapter explores why even in those countries that have invested in e-health applications, such as Denmark, Sweden and Spain, an example of a population that can fully control its own health data is not found. It addresses the conflict between patients' desire to control their data and the public's need to use those data for various worthy purposes, and discusses what (or who) drives the collection and the accessibility of these data in the pursuit of new clinical insights.
