Response to the Draft of Patient Rights Regulations

The medical information of patients is an intangible accumulation of capital that creates new wealth on a scale that cannot be estimated. The newly created wealth belongs to patients, doctors and health organizations (as trustees). The draft regulations overcome difficulties in safeguarding patients' privacy. But the big question that still remains unresolved in this framework is how patients and the public health system channel their property, medical information, to their advantage. What is the mechanism that will ensure that the proceeds of property are directed to strengthening the public health system, improving services, updating them and making them accessible to the entire population. The entrepreneur must be incentivized; the return on venture capital must be given; and the reward of big data — sacred to the development of research and digital medicine as social medicine. Without the regulation of this matter in primary legislation, there is concern that this huge wealth will pass to software giants whose main goal is profit. These will develop advanced technologies and applications that will not be accessible to all segments of the population and could widen health disparities even further, taking a toll on the public system.