Health-Information Altruists

Abstract

Project planners who are seeking to cultivate a network of patients willing to provide their health information to genomic-cohort investigators, as described by Kohane and Altman (Nov. 10 issue),¹ cannot afford to ignore how increasing commercialization has complicated the social contract for biomedical research.² In fact, the very projects in Iceland and Estonia cited by the authors as precedents for the success of health-information altruism have foundered, owing to controversies over the commercial use of personal health records.^3,4