All right. Well, with the rise of digital
mental health care has come a surge and health data
. And as usual policy hasn't really caught up with
practice. Well, a new report shows that this
data is being brought bought and sold with few protections
for individuals. So, here with more cheddar news
, senior reporter Claudia Yellow. So Chloe before we
dig into this report, how did Covid 19 really
fuel the rise of digital health care? Hey Shannon
. Well, the COVID-19 pandemic was really the perfect
storm for the rise of digital mental health care.
It both exacerbated mental health issues and restricted access to
in person care. In just the first year of
the COVID-19 pandemic, the global prevalence of anxiety and
depression surged by a whopping 25% accord into the world
Health Organization, restricted access to therapy and in person
care. Saw a shift toward telehealth and health,
which really just means the access of mental health services
via a mobile phone or device. Now, a
quick search on Tiktok finds tons of videos of users
discussing their experiences with digital mental health care. Take
a look. It's no secret that the pandemic led
more people to access mental health care virtually and regulatory
bodies have made it easier to prescribe medications online.
Oh, a fresh pie. Save me a slice
. That's good. Okay, that's good. As
these Tiktok's kind of indicate the prevalence of M.
Health App Downloads has really increased about 200% between 2019
and 2020 Shannon. All right. So what's the
problem with the user from a user data perspective.
So, according to this new report from the Duke's
Sanford School of Public Policy. The problem is that
these apps collect the most sensitive kind of data on
people's mental and physical health. And despite popular belief
in most cases they aren't regulated by HipAA. Consider
good Rx. The FTC just earlier this month,
find the telehealth and pharmacy company.$1.5 million for
sharing the private health data of customers with google facebook
and other third parties without those customers consent. Now
in the Duke report researcher Joanne kim contacted 37 data
brokers and there are thousands in the U. S
. She found that 11 were willing to sell her
that data. And what did it cost? Well
it cost anywhere from$275 for 5000, aggregated counts
of mental health records to upwards of$100,000 a year
. Year for subscription access to similar data. Now
in some cases this data was anonymized. But in
other cases, brokers advertised that they actually had names
, postal addresses, race and ethnicity of individuals with
depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety issues, panic disorders
, cancer PTSD O. C. D. Personality
disorders, even strokes. There also wasn't a ton
of vetting as far as who could actually purchase the
data. Okay then. So what do researchers hope
will come of all of this? Well the hope
that it will spread a little bit more awareness about
these practices now, HipAA was developed in 1996 which
is almost 30 years ago. It's hard to believe
and technology has moved far beyond that. Now.
I spoke earlier to Justin Sherman, who is a
senior fellow at Duke University Sanford School of Public Policy
and he runs its data broker research program. He
said that he hopes the report will generate more state
level and congressional attention to the need for stronger health
privacy protections, the digital age. He also said
it's far past time to update these laws to encompass
all the ways people seek health care, not just
in person visits to doctors. He emphasized that it's
especially important following jobs versus Jackson Women's Health Organization,
after which of course, we know many states have
restricted of work should access.