Transforming health care with data proves daunting

Speakers at Health Datapalooza, the annual convention for data geeks, doctors, researchers and patients, offered numerous examples of how people are trying to use data to make medical care safer, swifter and less expensive. But most of those projects are still works in progress. 

NPR: The Health Data Revolution Enters An Awkward Adolescence
The crowd in a hotel ballroom in Washington, D.C., was rocking on Monday, the 2,000 people shrieking with excitement over federal health-care databases. That could only happen at Health Datapalooza, the annual summit for data geeks, doctors, researchers and patients who want to use data to transform health care -; or at least make a buck. Both of those goals are proving to demand a lot more than just coming up with a nifty API and getting the venture capitalists to buy in (Shute, 6/3).

Marketplace: Sharing Our Personal Health Data – For Good
Health privacy can, at times, be at odds with a major cultural shift happening in healthcare: a demand for greater transparency. The Health Data Exploration project is another example where sharing trumps privacy. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation – in collaboration with several California schools – aims to convince consumers to share the personal health data that's being generated from an avalanche of apps and wearable devices like Fitbit. The question behind the Health Data Exploration project is how to harness that data, and do something other than make money off of it (Gorenstein, 6/4).