Trust Me. Really.

What is the current talk of the day? Trust. People have been talking about security; with ARRA, worldwide stimulus efforts, the collapse of the NHS systems, eHealth Ontario contracting problems and, well anything Facebook. A recent paper, "Privacy and Security in the Implementation of Health Information Technology (Electronic Health Records): U.S. and EU Compared," by a team headed by David Baumer at North Carolina State University reports that personal privacy concerns are seriously hindering efforts at EMR implementation. How are HIEs to secure personal medical data? How can we secure data repositories? Who should have access to medical data systems? Who “owns” medical data? Can personal data be commodified, i.e., “sold?” And to whom?

Many very talented people are working on security; of data systems, of encryption methods and of communications systems. But there is more to all of this than making sure that what is sold is what is delivered. We can all buy a CD on the internet from a garage band in Cyprus with some confidence that it will arrive in the mail. But in business, with a need for repeat customers and partnerships there is a larger issue of continuous trust. How to do business with strangers we never actually meet? How can we develop those levels of trust that enable success? How do we maintain the trust of these distant people from other cultures?

This is the basic issue across so much of what the members of GlobalHealthIT.org are encountering—Trust. How are Health IT companies and professionals to enter new markets, win trust, successfully extend trust and maintain those trust relationships? Dean Foster Associates, the leading business-culture education company (and a partner of GlobalHealthIT.org) has data on trust relationships for 120 countries—and every one is different. Canadians have trouble trusting Americans. Why? Latin-Americans frustrate Americans. Why? And how can we connect this sense of disconnect to resources like those at the IHITA Academy to develop paths to success? Can the practice of “trust exchange” be measured? And therefore managed?

In the coming months, GlobalHealthIT, as a blog and as an international trade organization, will be working to develop this conversation.

Thoughts?