Making Health Data Useful to Patients Through Open APIs
<p>The 21st Century Cures Act, which passed the Senate yesterday and is expected to be signed by President Obama, will require that health information technology systems allow for the exchange of information in order to be federally certified. In a new <em>To the Point</em> post, Judah Thornewill of GroupPlus, The Commonwealth Fund’s Eric C. Schneider, M.D., and colleagues explain that legislation like the Cures Act is one way to support the development of application program interface technologies, or APIs, which are needed to ensure patients can access and share their digital health information as needed. </p><p>Thornewill and coauthors say that with openly accessible APIs, consumers would be able to retrieve their digital health information without restriction or cost—and this could ultimately lead to better health, better care, and smarter spending. They then outline actions the public and private sectors can take to encourage the broad adoption of such technology.</p>
http://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/newsletters/ealerts/2016/dec/making-health-data-useful-to-patients-through-open-apis Read the post