In an op-ed for the Los Angeles Times, David Lazarus explains why U.S. President Barack Obama’s “precision medicine” database containing DNA information of a million volunteers needs strong privacy protections. While the system represents a big leap in big data analytics by allowing doctors and hospitals to help piece together a person’s risk for disease, it also has its downsides. “The darker possibility, however, is a disturbing prospect of genetic haves and have-nots, and of discrimination based not on race, age or gender but on health,” writes Lazarus. “My sense is that when it comes to big data and health care, we don’t know what we don’t know. That is, the full benefits and dangers will become apparent only as these systems are brought online and start to interact,” he added.
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