Trump administration launches health data-sharing initiative

Image: White House/Flickr

The Trump administration has announced a new digital health initiative focused on making health information interoperable and enabling patients to access their own health records more easily.

This includes promoting a Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Interoperability Framework to “easily and seamlessly share information between patients and providers” and “increasing the availability of personalised tools so that patients have the information and resources they need to make better health decisions”.   

More than 60 companies pledged support for the CMS Health Tech Ecosystem initiative, including Amazon, Anthropic, Apple, Google, Noom, OpenAI and Oracle. They will “work collaboratively” to “deliver results” in the first quarter of 2026, a CMS news release said, though no specific milestones were given.

“We have the tools and information available now to empower patients to improve their outcomes and their healthcare experience,” said CMS administrator Dr Mehmet Oz. “For too long, patients in this country have been burdened with a healthcare system that has not kept pace with the disruptive innovations that have transformed nearly every other sector of our economy. With the commitments made by these entrepreneurial companies today, we stand ready for a paradigm shift in the US healthcare system for the benefit of patients and providers.” 

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‘Breakthrough’

Twenty-one networks pledged to meet the voluntary CMS Interoperability Framework criteria to become CMS Aligned Networks. Eleven health systems or providers committed to participate and support patient use, and seven Electronic Health Records providers committed to facilitate data exchange.

In addition, 30 companies pledged to develop new digital health tools that will “use secure digital identity credentials to obtain medical records from CMS Aligned Networks that meet the CMS data sharing criteria”.

The apps will mainly support the delivery of diabetes and obesity management; conversational AI assistants to help patients check symptoms, navigate care options and schedule appointments; and digital tools to replace paper systems.

CMS also plans to add an app library to Medicare.gov to highlight “trusted, personalised digital health tools focused on prevention, chronic disease management and cost-effective care navigation”. 

“The key breakthrough we’ve made is getting many of the biggest names in healthcare technology to agree to industry-wide standards for electronic medical records,” Trump said during a speech launching the initiative.

In May, CMS and the assistant secretary for technology policy issued a request for information (RFI) on ways to modernise the nation’s digital health ecosystem. The White House said that the RFI generated nearly 1,400 comments from patients, caregivers, providers, payers, technology developers and others and “these comments were instrumental in helping CMS form the vision and initiatives launched today”.

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Concerns

“The system will be entirely opt-in, and there will be no centralised, government-run database, which everyone is always concerned about,” Trump said, adding that “instead, doctors and patients will always remain in control.”

However, some have raised concerns.

“There are enormous ethical and legal concerns,” Lawrence Gostin, a Georgetown University law professor who specialises in public health, told the Associated Press. “Patients across America should be very worried that their medical records are going to be used in ways that harm them and their families.”

“This scheme is an open door for the further use and monetisation of sensitive and personal health information,” said Jeffrey Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy.

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