Déjà Vu

I founded Particle Health five years ago around the mission of dramatically changing lives by enabling simple and secure access to actionable healthcare data. At the time, the 21st Century Cures Act was already two years old - and we trusted the government to turn that Act into enforceable law. Now, six years after the original signing of the legislation, patient access to data is still not a reality to Americans. 

I got a bit of déjà vu this week reading about how providers are coming together to try and push back the October 6, 2022 enforcement date. This time by a whole additional year. This same exact group (and others) came together and published a different letter right before Anti-Information Blocking was turned into law back in 2020 and around the beginning of the pandemic. Imagine if the rule was already enforceable during the onset of COVID-19? Armed with the right data access Particle and other connected health IT vendors would have been able to stand up elevated contact tracing efforts, vaccine registration and a whole lot more… but we couldn’t make it happen because a small group of people pushed back. 

It has always been my hypothesis that the lack of access to clinical data at scale, is the core problem that can be directly linked to most of our US healthcare system’s inefficiencies today. These issues have a fundamental impact on healthcare costs but also quality of care and ultimately, patient outcomes. This is precisely why we can’t keep waiting for organizations to spend an entire decade to continue preparing. There is simply too much at stake.

The rules are written.

The policies are set.

The technology is standardized. 

We’re ready to turn this on and empower individuals to easily access their medical information when and where they need it most – and yet the powers that be successfully continue to push their way out.  Just read this Tweet from one of the most respected voices in healthcare information technology:

It’s time we get this over the line.