Smarter use of public service statistics can save lives as well as money. But anxious civil libertarians want to stop the state sharing our personal records. They must not succeed.

His concern is entirely altruistic of course; and that magazine’s subtle civic republicanism offers a wholly respectable intellectual position, of which this is a coherent and humane exposition. It is only my neurosis that makes me read it as crass technocratic utilitarianism.

My only different conclusion might be that GPs are in a good position to act as the trusted patient data repository you describe 🙂