Lisa McLaughlin, Co-CEO of WorkIt Health, said her company is “committed to creating a safe place for our members to receive discreet and accessible virtual care.” A Confidant Health representative repeated that the company recognizes the importance of privacy in SUD care and will “continue to comply with HIPAA and similar laws and maintain our own internal protocols.” that we have developed to protect our members.”
Representatives of the other companies involved in the study did not deny the use of third parties that the researchers identified, but they did assert that this did not threaten patient privacy and was appropriate. standards on the internet and in the medical space.
Nick Mercadante, founder and CEO of PursueCare, said his company does not collect, store or forward protected health information from users who visit and patients receive no care. care directly on the PursueCare website. He also said PursueCare does not share protected health information (PHI) with third parties, even though it “uses the Facebook Pixel and Google Analytics for internal reporting purposes”.
“It is a fact that the users of most websites on the internet today are subject to user data collection,” says Mercadante. “Health care-related websites, including those of health systems, hospitals, inpatient care facilities, and other traditional care facilities, are no different. “
Pear Therapeutics, responsible for reSET-O, notes that they do not share PHI without patient consent, do not use any digital footprints to identify users and report data “on an aggregated and de-identified basis”.
Experts remain concerned about data collection in the first place, de-identified or not, but acknowledge that what is happening here is not illegal and will likely continue because that reason. Danielle Tarino, who used to lead the health IT team at SAMHSA and now works in cybersecurity, has spent a significant portion of her career investigating the privacy implications of mHealth, particularly especially for people with substance use disorders. She believes the best way to protect privacy will come from creating and implementing additional tools.
“This is how small tech businesses work and without anyone telling you you’re not allowed to do it, you’re allowed to do it,” she said, questioning whether using website’s use of ad trackers and external software is reduced. to finance. Clark also expressed concern that the use of data collection is financially motivated and, at the right price, could be sold or leased to law enforcement or other parties. “When there are monetary incentives, people will make changes. When there’s no monetary incentive, they won’t,” he said. In short, data privacy experts don’t anticipate that mHealth companies will stop collecting data unless forced to.
The opinions of cybersecurity experts and telehealth company CEOs are relevant, but perhaps most important are the opinions of people with substance abuse disorders. addicts, who would lose the most if the experts’ fears were realized and who Season 2 was designed for. After being shown the data from the analysis, a patient using traditional healthcare providers said via direct message: “Thank you for reaffirming why I don’t. use telehealth.” He added that he’s not sure the findings will stop people from using telehealth if that’s the only way they can get treatment. Those patients simply must trust their providers to act in their best interests.
Another patient using one of the companies analyzed by OPI and LAC was alarmed by these findings. “They should [be required to] there’s a service that prevents them from being able to track anything like that,” he said.
“How much is my information worth?” he asks, questioning whether the data from his and other patients’ use of the site is worth more than the several hundred dollars they make each month as patients. “It’s so scrary. This is the first time in my life that I am not on probation in 10 years. Now, I don’t. To think someone could really just look at that… Who knows what would happen?”
