The Food and Drug Administration is working on building a nationwide electronic system that will track the safety of drugs and medical devices. This data system will host anonymous patient data in order to protect patient privacy. However, the privacy could make the system less valuable according to some specialists.

According to NextGov, former FDA commissioner Mark McClellan, “tracing back medical data to patients could be beneficial.” Moreover, McClellan says that Sentinel, the initiative to host the data, “sooner than later, might benefit by moving beyond de-identified data.”

Some of the benefits of having data that identifies with individuals are that the FDA would be able to link certain side effects to specific blood types, certain populations, or other unique genetic features.

As of now, Sentinel will continue to focus on large data sets of de-identified data. However, there are certainly discussions occurring in Washington as to what will be the most useful for patients, despite privacy concerns.