Company History
The professional path that YTC’s founder, Dr. Richard S. Dick, has followed gives him immediate credibility (see Team Bios) and provides clear evidence of a creative, innovative thinker. His experience as the Study Director of the 1991 National Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Medicine study of what was then called the Computer-Based Patient Record (now typically called the Electronic Health Record [EHR] or Electronic Medical Record [EMR]) was one of the first occasions when he was called to deeply consider the privacy issues created by the “information age.”
The key realization Dr. Dick experienced is that the authorization is actually almost magical. No data can appropriately flow without it: it is the key to information fluidity. But for the individual, disclosing information has often meant the loss of privacy. Dr. Dick’s conviction that the individual ought to be in control of his or her own information has come to fruition in YTC’s specific policies.
The “mechanics” of putting the individual in control took time and many long thoughts. The puzzle of having individuals in control while also creating structures that would make it practical for those holding the data to disclose it—protecting them from liability when they did so and rewarding good data stewardship—means that the authorization is the key to releasing AND acquiring data in a truly legitimate form.
Ultimately, the full development of YTC has meant the genuine conviction that the flow of data can be a “positive” for everyone involved—a “win-win-win”—and if money is changing hands, the individual should be a part of that equation.
Everyone wins, no one loses. The history of YTC comes to fruition in that vision for the information age.