Enterprise
Samsung Backs Open API Pledge for Healthcare Data Interoperability
12/13/2018
Last week, Samsung was honored to participate in the White House Executive Forum on Healthcare Data Interoperability, where the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs launched its first Health Application Programming Interface (API) that will enable veterans to interact with their own personal health data while mobile. We are proud to be collaborating with U.S. government officials and other public and private partners to advance this Open API Initiative.
The Open API Initiative, which is used by healthcare providers to access and exchange patient information, reconsiders what it means to put the patient truly at the center of care. For years, healthcare providers and their information technology partners have struggled with several thorny data issues:
- Ensuring patients have complete access to their medical records or files
- Providing seamless movement from provider-to-provider without restarting parts of the healthcare journey with each new provider
- Meeting their patients’ need to feel fully informed and empowered to make the right decisions
Fortunately, when Congress passed the 21st Century Cures Act in 2016, the legislation included an important provision regarding patient access to their medical records, portability of the patient data and interoperability of the health data. The law requires that certified health information technology products have an API that allows health information to be accessed, exchanged and used “without special effort” and provides “access to all data elements of a patient’s electronic health record to the extent permissible under applicable privacy laws.”