Social media a healthcare data gold mine

Bill Schmarzo envisions a future where holiday photos posted on Facebook become a gauge of a person’s weight loss or gain over time. The chief technology officer for EMC’s consultant services acknowledges that privacy advocates are unlikely to allow his fantasy to become reality, but the technology that can measure minute body changes in photographs and feed it into someone’s electronic health record already exists. “The scary thing is if that data could be used to deny care and insurability,” Schmarzo says. Healthcare companies are loathe to tread into such sensitive territory, but they are keenly aware of the gold mine of health data stored in people’s social media accounts.