One in 10 Australians didn’t trust the government with their health data. Will they trust Uber Health?

Uber is muscling in on the health sector with the launch of a new transport service that allows doctors to organise a ride for their patients to and from GPs and hospitals up to 30 days in advance, but questions remain about the protection of health data.

The Uber Health platform will see health professionals — known as “coordinators” — schedule rides on behalf of patients and caregivers who are attending appointments, discharging from a facility, or are part of the NDIS.

But it is not intended for emergency transport, nor the transport of COVID-positive people, Uber says.

The tech giant continues that Uber Health is the latest diversification in its mission to “re-imagine the way the world moves for the better”, adding that the technology is particularly important in an era where missed appointments can add extra pressure on Australia’s strained health providers.

Accessibility is key, Uber says — patients travelling using Uber Health will not be required to download the app, have a smartphone or even have a credit card as alerts will be sent via text messages or landline calls with details of the ride in more than 20 languages.

Head of Uber for business ANZ Sam Brown added Uber Health would also “create new earning opportunities for driver-partners”.

The concept was developed after Uber observed a “lack of technology used in the healthcare industry to manage patients’ care plans”, a statement reads.

“The Uber Health dashboard was specifically designed with healthcare companies in mind, so you can safeguard your patients’ information from start to finish.

“Trips that need attention are flagged for intervention, letting coordinators claim ownership of follow-up, enabling your team to ensure that everyone is getting the attention they need.”

But whether or not Australians will consent to the private company maintaining their health data considering the reluctant uptake of the federal government’s My Health Record remains to be seen.

My Health Record was designed to allow information about patients to be shared between health providers to creater a broader picture of a person’s health, but security fears were heightened by early glitches that prevented clinical use.

More than 2.5 million people, or about one in 10 Australians, had opted out of the controversial system as of 2019, Senate estimates revealed, amid concerns for data privacy.

And Uber has come under scrutiny before for its handling of data, with the Australian Privacy Commissioner finding it interfered with the privacy of 1.2 million Australians when it suffered a data breach and covered it up in 2016.

Australia’s information commissioner and privacy commissioner Angelene Falk found Uber breached the Privacy Act 1988 by not taking reasonable steps to protect Australians’ personal information from unauthorised access and to destroy or de-identify the data as required.

In a statement however, Uber ANZ said there is “no medical data stored on the Uber Health platform”, continuing it would work the same as a regular Uber trip.

“We’ve worked with health industry experts to build a robust platform with patient privacy front and centre of this service,” a spokesperson continued.

“We have numerous safeguards in place to protect patient health information, including preventing the collection of any health information that is unrelated to the request of a trip.

“Ride information is encrypted, and for drivers the trip is no different from a normal Uber trip, to ensure patient privacy is upheld to the highest standard.”

Uber added that it has “a fully trained and dedicated healthcare team that understands the importance of this and how to contextualise use in the healthcare ecosystem”.

Australia is the first market outside of the US where Uber Health will roll out following the success of a domestic pilot this year.

And the company is confident of more success. Uber says it has seen a 71% increase in gross bookings from Q4 2020 to Q4 2021 since its US launch in 2018, with more than 3000 customers using Uber Health.