With a view to pulling the veil back on the whys and wherefores of their operations, a representative of either the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) Authority or the Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit (HIWU) will every week answer a question of industry importance posed by the TDN.If you have any questions you'd like to ask HISA or HIWU, please feel free to send them over to us at the following email address: danross@thetdn.com Q: Recently, there have been several posts online purporting to show Daily Racing Form past performances that include records of intra-articular injections. Some of the posts suggest that HISA has been selling the data to outside entities. What does HISA do with the data it collects? And moreover, what information should gamblers have access to, and where can they access this info? Lisa Lazarus: HISA would never sell individual horse health information without the consent of the Responsible Persons, and any suggestion otherwise is categorically false.It is true that HISA is exploring monetizing data in a generalized fashion to reduce the financial burden of HISA on the industry. However, no such agreement has been launched to date, and HISA will always seek consent before sharing any individual horse health information.Most importantly, the screenshots of PPs circulating online could not have come from the HISA Portal because some of the information is different from what is in the HISA Portal. So, while this information did not come from HISA, the importance of the aggregation of treatment records for horses in the HISA Portal cannot be overstated.With all of the information that HISA is collecting, and through collaboration with technology companies like Palantir, we now have the opportunity to analyze the data to glean learnings that we can then translate into public knowledge. This was not possible prior to HISA's creation of a centralized database. These learnings will help prevent injuries and fatalities, inform best practices, enhance our rules and ultimately move our industry forward.As it pertains to gamblers, individual horse health data is not available for public consumption. Whether or not that data would be made available in the future is something that the industry must discuss and consider together. HISA, however, does currently maintain a public Epistaxis and Unsoundness list that is available to everyone registered with HISA via the HISA Portal.Finally, we have shared our review into the potential source of these PP records and our conclusion that they did not come from the HISA Portal, with other entities that might be the source of that information, and have encouraged them to conduct their own review to ensure the data is not being used for unauthorized purposes.Note: HISA will be elaborating on what it does with the data in the coming weeks of this series. The post Ask HISA: Data Usage appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.