Benefits & risks of public access to UACDS & UHDDS.

Uniform Ambulatory Care Data Set (UACDS) and Uniform Hospital Discharge Data Set (UHDDS) â€“ Benefit

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Uniform Ambulatory Care Data Set (UACDS) and Uniform Hospital Discharge Data Set (UHDDS) are set of medical data which are mainly structured in order to describe hospital episodes or admissions in precise way. UACDS is helpful in regulating the aspect of ambulatory care and this set of data is useful since it includes many significant data, however is not a mandatory set of data ¹. On the other hand, UHDDS can be described as the core data set required for inpatient admission in a hospital. The purpose of UHDDS is obtainment of uniform, as well as comparable data regarding discharge of all the inpatients. A few risks and benefits of having public’s accessibility to the abovementioned databases will be discussed in the following table.

Risk	Benefits
In healthcare system, maintenance of the confidentially of patient’s information prioritized. However, in case these abovementioned databases remain open to public, it may lead to possibility of personal data leakage.	First of all, open database for general public can be beneficial in maintaining transparency within the healthcare system. Participation of public in planning programs and providing feedback increase awareness among public.
Second risk that can be associated with easy accessibility of these data set include misinterpretation of data. General public might not have in- depth knowledge regrading medical terminology. Considering this fact, the risk of misinterpretation of data from user’s end can be anticipated ².	Considering the openness of data, public services can be improved. Through open data the government or the regulatory agencies will be assessing the data on regular basis and thereby will stay updated regarding any loopholes in their published data. This will eventually help the governing body to improve public service.
Open data incorporates innovative programs, which might increase the economic burden on the healthcare system.	Open data allows re- use of public data for social innovation ³. Researchers may use this data to order to conduct particular research on healthcare topics.
The risk of cybersecurity may be created for the internal IT department who are involved in protecting this large set of data ⁴. Reengineering of the data may lead to beaching of personal data and this may directly be related to patient’s health.	Economic burden spent on data collection of clinical experiments may be avoided and this will eventually help to reduce the economic burden of the government and other regulating agencies.
At las but not the least the regulatory body maintaining the databases might be sued for releasing protected information.	Efficiency is another major factor which is considered in this regard. Through open databases citizens of the country can be empowered.

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Serwadda, David, Paul Ndebele, M. Kate Grabowski, Francis Bajunirwe, and Rhoda K. Wanyenze. "Open data sharing and the Global South—Who benefits?." Science 359, no. 6376 (2018): 642-643.
Shahin, Mohamed H., Sanchita Bhattacharya, Diego Silva, Sarah Kim, Jackson Burton, Jagdeep Podichetty, Klaus Romero, and Daniela J. Conrado. "Open data revolution in clinical research: Opportunities and challenges." Clinical and translational science13, no. 4 (2020): 665-674.
Coventry, Lynne, and Dawn Branley. "Cybersecurity in healthcare: a narrative review of trends, threats and ways forward." Maturitas113 (2018): 48-52.

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