Trust in Health Data: Secure, Private, Useful

Health data is powerful only when people believe it is handled responsibly. Trust in Health Data: Secure, Private, Useful examines the fragile balance between protecting sensitive information and making it genuinely usable for care, research, and innovation.
This book approaches health data through a trust lens, not a technical checklist. It explores why patients hesitate to share data, how breaches and misuse erode confidence, and why over-restrictive controls can be just as harmful as weak security. The focus is on designing data systems that earn trust through transparency, governance, and accountability.
Rather than diving deep into encryption or regulations alone, the book looks at real tradeoffs: privacy versus access, security versus usability, and innovation versus consent. Readers learn how data can be shared responsibly across providers, platforms, and borders without losing public confidence.
This book confronts key questions:
• What makes health data feel safe to share?
• When does protection limit clinical usefulness?
• How trust is built over time—not promised once
This book is for healthcare leaders, technologists, policymakers, and data stewards who understand that without trust, even the best data is worthless. If health data is to improve lives, this book shows how to keep it secure, private, and truly useful.