The Need of an Open Data Quality Policy: The Case of the "Transparency - Health" Database in the Prevention of Conflict of Interest

Stud Health Technol Inform. 2018:247:611-615.

Abstract

Open data available largely and with minimal constraints to the general public and journalists are needed to help rebuild trust between citizens and the health system. By opening data, we can expect to increase the democratic accountability, the self-empowerment of citizens. This article aims at assessing the quality and reusability of the Transparency - Health database with regards to the FAIR principles. More specifically, we observe the quality of the identity of the French medical doctors in the Transp-db. This study shows that the quality of the data in the Transp-db does not allow to identity with certainty those who benefit from an advantage or remuneration to be confirmed, reducing noticeably the impact of the open data effort.

Keywords: Open data; citizen trust; conflict of interest; data quality; sunshine act.

MeSH terms

  • Conflict of Interest
  • Data Accuracy*
  • Databases, Factual*
  • Health Policy*
  • Humans
  • Policy
  • Trust