Technical and Economic Models for a Global Patient co-Owned Cloud (GPOC)

Abstract

Abstract Recent data breaches causing non-consenting profitable use of medical information as well as global environmental catastrophes, and refugee cross-border migration arising from conflict have led to loss of personal healthcare data with patients seeking better control over their data. Likert scale results from the 2022 global audit survey was combined with micro and macroeconomic indicators to construct a three-level statistical model to generate a GPOC-coefficient score. This score stratified stakeholder eligibility into GPOC-ready, welcoming, and approaching further delineating GPOC-approaching affinity into strong, moderate, or weak. From an econometric approach, additional probabilistic models enabled stakeholders seeking to adopt a GPOC to objectively evaluate their economic burden of impact linked to information and infrastructure loss. We observed that there was a normal distribution centred around 72 countries that were strongly approaching a GPOC if non-fiscal shocks were used. This increased to 94% of all participating countries if fiscal shocks were applied. We assert that fiscal and non-fiscal economic parameters affect a GPOC-readiness score. This multifaceted approach enabled prediction of 50-years of various health economic trends and allowed us to create a risk stratification scoring system that enables any interested country to evaluate their economic resources to support the creation and maintenance of a GPOC. We also investigated the technical requirements to develop a GPOC research sandbox that enables individuals to explore various methods of containerised and accessible cloud-based systems that can support data management of personalised health records (PHR). This may allow cross-border movement of one’s PHR in various uniquely encrypted formats that support medical and non-medical research data discovery. We explore tools to meet some of the criteria for the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) in supporting healthcare software design for a GPOC. The modular sandbox environment contains various protocols for decentralised data transfer, homomorphic encryption, and personal health record file management etc. Its development and subsequent stakeholders’ adoption will involve patients, clinicians, organisations, companies, regulators, and policymakers. It also offers policymakers the opportunity to consider developing tools to support a co-ownership model and a method to derive value from the GPOC.