I can kind of see the original idea. Giving scientists access to the medical records of an entire population would surely lead to advances in medical knowledge (that new drug you're taking for $disease, you'll be lucky if it's been tested on more than 100 people). However, there's really obvious privacy implications.
How can people's data be anonymised enough that they can stay private, but still be useful for research?
Biting the hand that feeds IT
