Over the next few months the Future Agenda team is leading discussions around the world to bring together different views on the future of patient data. We are looking at how evolutions in data creation, availability and sharing are reshaping the way personal health and patient data is managed and are providing individuals with greater autonomy, control and access to their health information – while simultaneously ensuring improved safety and security.

These discussions between leaders in their field will explore how the emerging shifts may evolve and with what implications. They will build on an initial perspective and associated presentation that were first shared in June. These describe some ways in which new technologies and networks manage, share and analyse personal data and also outline how this has the potential to mitigate some of the challenges currently facing the provision of healthcare across the globe.

Specific opportunities already highlighted include making information more widely available; applying improved analytics and machine learning; rethinking data ownership and creating more open data ecosystems. In particular, as the big-data transformation grows, many organisations are interested in exploring the advantages of moving data from centralised systems into the hands, and especially ownership, of the patient – thus allowing individuals to be in greater control of their personal information and therefore to be potentially more involved in their health.

By looking at the creation of health and patient data, and considering how it will be accessed, used, owned and shared over the next decade, this major collaborative research project will challenge existing assumptions, explore the major opportunities and also the risks – including issues around privacy and security – as well as identify what the primary drivers of change will be and with what impact.

Investigating the topic from the perspectives of hospitals, insurance companies, pharmaceuticals, health-care providers, technology firms, advisors, researchers, medical device manufacturers, data managers and regulators, this initiative will not only highlight the global issues but also focus on regional differences and implications.

As with other recent Future Agenda projects on the Future of Trade, Cities and Philanthropy, the Future of Patient Data will produce a comprehensive view of what many different organisations and experts around the world see as the likely direction over the next decade. The resulting report will identify the key benefits, enablers and constraints and where are the major areas for further research, innovation and collaboration.

For this project we have assembled a superb combination of events with hosts including leading companies, universities and governments. The current schedule of events is:

• Dubai (27th September) hosted by Herman Miller
• Johannesburg (10th October) hosted by Discovery Health
• Oslo (30th October) hosted by Accenture in partnership with the University of Oslo
• Brussels (9th November) hosted by UCB
• Singapore (13^th ) hosted by Accenture
• Sydney (15th November) co-hosted by TAL, Telstraand Pfizer
• Mumbai (23rd November) co-hosted by Tata Consulting Services
• Toronto (early December) co-hosted by Cisco and York University
• San Francisco (early December) host TBC
• Boston (early December) host TBC
• London (14th December) hosted by Accenture in partnership with Warwick University

We are also looking at adding extra events as diaries allow in Copenhagen, Munich, Sao Paulo and Tel-Aviv.

As usual, throughout out the project we will share new insights gained from these discussions on Linked-In, SlideShare, Flickr and twitter so that others can comment, add to and challenge the views as they develop. Once the workshops are complete, we will compile a final report similar in format to the recent Future of Cities.

For more information on this project or to become involved as a host or potential participant please do get in touch.