Google has announced the general availability of technology that if widely adopted could make it easier for patients to access their own health information via third-party apps.
Known as the Google Healthcare API, the technology can be embraced by health care systems as a new government mandates loom that will require them to make it easier for patients to view and use their health data.
Health care providers can start building new systems using the new Google Healthcare API for translating and converting data stored in different types of systems, from imaging systems to medical records software. According to the documentation, the Healthcare API is meant for storing and accessing healthcare data in Google Cloud, providing a critical bridge between existing care systems and applications hosted on Google Cloud. It was remarked by Google that customers are not required to store the data in Google Cloud.
Microsoft Azure, Google’s rival, also has a similar health care API that is designed to assist health care customers to connect to resources such as electronic health records.
Health care companies are now increasingly being made to share health information with their patients, especially with the outbreak of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), as well as the health apps they choose to use. Earlier this year, a set of rules were released by the Department of Health and Human Services for preventing health care companies from so-called “information blocking.”
The practice that had been going on for years made it difficult for patients to access their own medical information at the doctor’s office or hospital. Usually, patients are asked to pay for accessing their records or information provided to them is through a printed PDF or CD-ROM.
Aneesh Chopra, the first chief technology officer of the White House and the president of Care Journey, a health analytics company, remarked hospitals and vendors have two years to comply with new rules. Chopra added this could help them move faster, and it should increase the marketplace of applications that are physician facing, patient-facing and potential health plan facing, so individuals can get their health information that would have been locked up.
Chopra also commented that COVID-19 is really bringing the entire (health data) interoperability conversation to the forefront and further added that it is becoming really crucial from a patient standpoint.
Recently, it was noted by Google Cloud’s health care leaders that the COVID-19 pandemic shows again why the interoperability of health data is important. It can also support the kind of efforts that are presently underway, such as the new app of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that aims to share information seamlessly from electronic health records with public health departments. The app will launch in May 2020.
