Personal Health Data in Healthcare: Important Factors Considered by Health Students—A Qualitative Study

Background/Objectives: Digital technologies and data-driven approaches are rapidly transforming healthcare practice and enabling more personalized and preventive care. As personal health data becomes increasingly embedded in healthcare systems, understanding how future healthcare professionals interpret these developments is essential for shaping responsive health education. This study aims to identify the factors that students in health-related programs consider important regarding the increasing use of personal health data in healthcare. Methods: An exploratory qualitative focus group study was conducted between March 2024 and July 2025 across five higher education institutions in Australia, Canada, and the Netherlands. Seven focus groups were conducted with forty students from health-related programs, including nursing, public health, occupational therapy, and social work. Participants discussed the use of personal health data in healthcare and reflected on short fictional future scenarios designed to stimulate discussion about possible developments in data-driven healthcare. Data were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis using ATLAS.ti. Results: Three overarching domains were identified: (1) personalization and prevention, (2) data quality and ethical considerations, and (3) organizational implications and conditions. Students described personal health data as a powerful tool for personalization, prevention, and informed decision-making. At the same time, they raised concerns about data reliability, overreliance on automated systems, patient anxiety, potential dehumanization of care, privacy risks, and emerging inequalities related to access to and representation within data systems. Overall, students appeared neither purely techno-optimistic nor technophobic, but articulated nuanced ethical, cultural, and professional tensions surrounding data-driven care. Conclusions: Preparing future healthcare professionals for data-driven healthcare requires integrating critical data literacy, ethical reflection, interdisciplinary collaboration and opportunities to critically engage with the societal and professional implications of data-driven technologies into health professional education, while ensuring that organizational conditions support the responsible use of personal health data.