Table 2.

Descriptions of a Medical Information Commons

Collectively-owned, for the public good. P10: “I think of a commons of as being something that is publicly owned or collectively-owned among a group and collectively accessed.” P18: “…I think it’s a community good and I don’t think anybody owns it…That that should be one of the principals up front.” Organized around the individual, diverse types of data. P22: “This is sort of my dream world. I think we could do so much good science and address so many public health issues if we had a commons system in which ultimately we could bring as much data as we have on every individual together into a very comprehensive, very deeply descriptive longitudinal record for that individual, and then that would include not just their traditional health data and data generated during when they participated in research but also lifestyle data and fitness data and grocery store receipts…If we just had everything we know about every individual linked together and then have that same information for everybody in the world. We would know everything about every person for everybody.” Diverse types of data, for the purpose of facilitating research and improving health. P11: “An [MIC] would represent an aggregate data store of everything possible relevant to improving health of individuals and populations through both research and direct clinical care.”