You're being robbed ... and you're applauding

Athletes generate millions in broadcast revenue, betting odds, fantasy sports, and fan engagement. Pharmaceutical companies build billion-euro businesses from patient data. Yet the people who generate this value, whose bodies produce every data point, see virtually none of it.

The paradox is stark. What if every heart rate spike, every lactate threshold, every recovery metric became a tradable asset? What if patients could monetise their health data the same way elite athletes are beginning to monetise their performance metrics? We're not talking about a distant future. The infrastructure already exists. We've simply failed to ask the right question: if your body generates data, who owns the exhaust?

From spectacle to asset

The revolution is unfolding in four distinct phases, and we're watching it happen in real time.

Phase one is pure entertainment. When you watch the Tour de France and see a cyclist's power output overlaid on the broadcast, you're witnessing data as spectacle. The new Oakley Meta Vanguard glasses take this further, they capture your cycling workout from your point of view, then overlay heart rate, power, speed, and cadence directly onto the footage. Suddenly, every amateur cyclist can broadcast like a professional.

Phase two shifts to personal insight. You're no longer just watching; you're reviewing your own performance with the same biometric overlays that pros use. University teams are already competing not just athletically but technologically. Data analytics teams working alongside athletes to optimise performance through better insights.

Phase three is where it gets interesting: monetisation. Companies like BreakAway Data are building platforms that give athletes ownership of their performance data. In 2021, Project Red Card saw over 800 professional footballers threaten legal action against betting companies profiting from their statistics without consent. These athletes weren't being difficult; they were claiming what's legally theirs under GDPR. Yet at Chelsea, accessing a player's own data required an estimated 14 days of administrative work. When clubs treat data access as a privilege rather than a right, you know the system is broken.

The contrast with American sports is illuminating. LeBron James reportedly spends €1,4 million annually on recovery, nutrition, and performance. His team celebrates it as competitive advantage. Meanwhile, some English football clubs fine players for working with outside specialists. One system treats "extra" as excellence; the other treats it as insubordination.

Phase four is the healthcare translation. If we can solve athlete data ownership, why can't we solve patient data ownership?

The patient data opportunity

The logic is identical, but the stakes are higher. Patient data isn't just valuable for optimisation: it's life-or-death valuable! Consider the use cases:

Population health surveillance could detect infection spikes, allergy patterns, or emerging viruses before traditional systems notice. Your aggregated, anonymised movement and biometric data becomes an early warning system.
Rare disease research could accelerate dramatically when patients become partners, not just subjects. Their willingness to share data (properly compensated and consented) could unlock therapies currently stalled by small sample sizes.
Preventive care incentives flip the healthcare model. The WaiveDx and Sei Development Foundation collaboration is building a blockchain-based health economy where participants earn digital assets for contributing data or achieving health outcomes. Instead of paying for illness, you get rewarded for maintaining health. The freemium model inverted: rather than free apps harvesting your data whilst you pay with privacy, you get paid for your data whilst premium services compete for access.
Precision medicine marketplaces could match your data profile with relevant clinical trials automatically. Your tumour data might help develop targeted therapies, and you'd share in that value creation. The technical infrastructure exists. Blockchain systems can handle consent and compensation. AI can anonymise and analyse at scale. Wearables capture continuous data streams. What was once waste product, fitness tracking, health monitoring, becomes rocket fuel for a new economy.

The implementation reality

Let's be clear-eyed about the challenges. Data manipulation is real: people will game systems for rewards! Privacy versus profit creates genuine tensions. Regulatory frameworks like GDPR and HIPAA, designed to protect, sometimes become walls that trap. Platform monopolies from Strava to Epic Systems have enormous incumbent advantages. Most fundamentally, we need a cultural shift. Healthcare still treats data as liability, not asset. Hospitals hoard records the way English football clubs hoard performance metrics: out of fear of losing control. But here's the provocative question your organisation must answer: if athletes can be fined for trying to get better with outside help, should hospitals be penalised for hoarding patient data? Would you accept a lower insurance premium in exchange for real-time health data sharing? Should patients be able to sell their tumour tissue data to the highest-bidding pharmaceutical company?

Your first step tomorrow

For tech innovators: Attend hackathons with one specific challenge: build the Strava for patient data. Focus on a single disease vertical: diabetes, cardiovascular, or cancer survivors. Partner with one academic medical centre for a pilot. Ship a working prototype within six months. Measure user adoption, data quality, and research partnerships formed. For investors: Study one athlete data platform that's working. Map its model point-by-point to patient data contexts. Build the regulatory and business model analysis. Fund one pilot with a progressive health system. Then share your learnings openly to accelerate the ecosystem.

The infrastructure exists. The ownership doesn't.

We've built the technology to capture everything: Meta glasses, Garmin integration, blockchain health systems. The economic models are proven through athlete data monetisation and decentralised science platforms. The regulations even provide data rights through GDPR and HIPAA. What's missing isn't technology. It's permission structures and the cultural willingness to shift from control to collaboration. The question isn't whether this transformation will happen. It's whether you'll help build it, or watch others profit from the data your body creates.

💥 May this inspire you to advance healthcare beyond its current state of excellence.