Amazing things happen when we harness the power of data and transform it into solutions to the world’s most challenging problems – the globe gets mapped, the nearest Pokemon gets caught, and diseases get cured. These feats, big and small, take huge amounts of aggregate information. If we can’t find a good source for that data, it just won’t happen.

 

MEDICAL DATA & CANCER:

Medical data is no exception. If scientists knew what variant genes in human DNA cause cancers to start growing we could better tell who is at risk and how to prevent and treat the disease. Today, researchers know only a fraction of those variant genes because they lack access to crucial genetic data. It takes everyone’s data to unlock an answer. We can’t just learn from the sick, we need to understand why healthy people develop cancer too. With enough medical data, we could provide solutions for cancer, provide custom treatments for everyone. The solution is within reach.

 

OUR CULTURE & INFORMATION:

A federal rule helps all of us protect our personal medical data and keeps it from being released without our consent. So why aren’t we giving the consent to let researchers use our anonymous, aggregate data to cure cancer?

 

Let’s be honest, technology is moving fast. It’s changing the way we live every day. It’s raising new questions all the time about how our data is used and whether it’s safe. We don’t understand what things like “aggregate” and “anonymous” mean, we see security breaches happen, and we worry about how the data will impact us in the future. It makes it so hard to feel comfortable sharing our information. However, our collective medical data is the key to finding the solution.

 

THIS IS WHERE YOU COME IN:

What big message do you need to communicate to show everyone that data can solve the big “C”? What would you need to tell yourself to convince you to be more open about this important personal data? Create a pitch for a film, print campaign, installation, social experiment, or something else that helps viewers understand the power of data and how sharing their medical data could help cure this seemingly incurable disease.