[Square] Utilization of Public Medical Data from a Healthcare Perspective

Song Hyesook, Health Medical Information Manager (Professor of Health Administration)

The purpose of healthcare is to help the people who use healthcare services live healthy, free, and dignified lives. In this regard, the movement to utilize public medical data to improve healthcare services is accelerating worldwide.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) adopted the "Recommendation on Health Data Governance" in 2016 after deliberation by expert groups. The recommendation urged the active use of medical data to enhance public health benefits and emphasized that cooperation between the public and private sectors is essential.

Overseas, attempts to improve the quality of healthcare services by utilizing public medical data are emerging. In Finland, the government operates the "Kanta system," which accumulates personal medical data based on trust with the public, allowing the private sector to use de-identified information while ensuring strict security and transparency. Japan, Taiwan, and other countries are also working at the government level to expand the use of public medical data in cooperation with the private sector.

Recently, many institutional improvements have been made in South Korea to activate data use. Through the amendment of the Data 3 Act in February 2020, the use and provision of pseudonymized information and data linkage for industrial research purposes are now permitted. The Ministry of Health and Welfare also announced the "Healthcare Data and Artificial Intelligence Innovation Strategy" last June, aiming to increase the number of medical data openings, such as health insurance data, to 5,000 cases annually, and to actively build infrastructure by standardizing and providing data on high-incidence cancers and personal health-generated data, which are in high demand from hospitals and companies.

Despite these trends, issues related to the opening of public medical data have recently resurfaced. Some civic groups have expressed concerns about personal information leakage and commercial use when the National Health Insurance Service provides data to insurance companies.

While these concerns from civic groups are understandable, the provided information does not include personal identification data such as resident registration numbers, so insurance companies only use basic health information based on age, gender, and other fundamental data.

This data can be seen as part of a system to prepare for insurance risks aimed at promoting public health, with a greater focus on the public nature of insurance to maintain appropriate premium levels rather than commercial purposes. In South Korea, data is already provided to pharmaceutical companies, and major foreign countries also allow insurance companies to use citizens' health data. However, South Korea prohibits data provision only to insurance companies.

Moreover, strict pre-management and post-sanction measures based on laws are in place, and continuous monitoring by authorized supervisory institutions will be conducted.

As someone involved in healthcare, based on personal experience conducting research using high-quality data from the National Health Insurance Service and the Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service and deriving meaningful results, I believe that the utilization of public medical data will make significant social and public contributions.

For example, if private insurance covers risks such as infertility treatment, which were not covered by the private sector, it could contribute to solving the low birthrate problem and provide diversified and advanced healthcare services, thereby practically helping to promote public health. For this, a responsible attitude from private institutions using the data and efforts from public institutions with the duty to manage and supervise are essential.

Hopefully, under the grand premise that the public enjoys the maximum benefit from public medical data, smooth cooperation and communication between the public and private sectors will be achieved.

Song Hyesook, Health Information Manager (Professor of Health Administration)

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.