The digitization of healthcare has created a lot of change, with none as clear as the changes that have happened with health data. Transferring between clinics is much easier, patient care is improving thanks to continuous monitoring and diagnostic accuracy, and organizations are increasing their operational efficiencies. People have also taken advantage of digital health data to monitor their own conditions. Personal health devices such as Apple Watches and Oura Rings have been on the rise, allowing people to track their heart rate, sleep patterns, and more, all in the interest of bettering their health.
However, there have also been some negative changes, the main one being privacy concerns. Healthcare is not the only aspect of people’s lives that has become digitized. People have seen their data in these other digital spaces being sold to other parties without their consent, and as such, trust isn’t always very high. This mistrust is only compounded by the rise of ransomware attacks that specifically target health data.
This puts healthcare organizations in a high-wire balancing act of making sure that health data is easily accessible to their patients to do with as they wish, while also keeping health data securely locked up to keep it from becoming a target for cybercriminals. To get a better understanding as to how to best stay on this wire, we reached out to our incredible Healthcare IT Today Community and asked — what strategies are organizations using to ensure patients have secure, meaningful access to their health data? Below are their responses.
DJ Tucker, Managing Director, Healthcare Informatics at Healthcare IT Leaders
Meaningful patient data access has to be built on three simultaneous layers: frictionless portals that remove the incentive for workarounds, digital literacy embedded directly in the care experience, and governance frameworks that ensure your EHR configurations meet both regulatory requirements and real human usability. Get any one of those wrong and you haven’t solved the problem, you’ve just moved it.
The stakes are higher than most realize. Interoperability is a patient safety strategy. Fragmented records don’t stay in the background; they surface at the bedside, at the most critical moments. Solving for meaningful data access means investing in the governance layer, the Oracle Health and Epic configurations, the identity frameworks, and the patient-facing literacy.
Matt Ernst, VP, Technical Operations and Support at Tendo
Access to health data has expanded significantly, but the next step is making that information meaningful and easier to access for patients. Health systems are increasingly focused on bringing together fragmented data from EHRs, care teams, and digital tools, so patients have a clearer understanding of their health and care plans.
Equally important is ensuring that access is secure and trusted. That requires strong interoperability standards, thoughtful data governance, and patient-centered design.
Ultimately, meaningful access means patients can not only view their information, but also use it to make informed decisions and stay connected with their care teams throughout their care journey.
Paul Wilder, Executive Director at CommonWell Health Alliance
Patients deserve secure, meaningful access to their healthcare data, and this reality relies on the adoption of Individual Access Services (IAS). IAS is the technical paradigm shift required to move beyond information from a single provider towards agnostic, seamless, accurate, and complete information.
By leveraging the highest levels of verification to confirm a patient’s identity, IAS can help ensure patients can securely view their information from any provider that has contributed to their care, no matter who they see or where they live.
Our call to action? The entire healthcare community should prioritize exchanges and apps that align with IAS standards for patient access to accurate, complete, and secure information.
Jonathan Burk, Software Engineering Director at Full Spectrum
There is no shortage of healthcare apps, ranging from fitness trackers to patient portals. But the real key to ensuring patients have the data they need is building open, API-first architectures based on zero-trust cybersecurity principles. Embracing openness prevents app overload. With too much information spread across too many sites or apps, patients will be less likely to engage, resulting in the consumption of less data, not more.
Niki Panich, MD, Chief Medical Officer at Penguin Ai
Meaningful access is more than a patient portal login. It is giving patients data they can actually understand and act on. The organizations doing this the best are pairing open APIs and FHIR-compliant infrastructure with plain-language summaries and care team follow-through. Security and usability are both key requirements. Patients engage with data they trust, and they build that trust by actually being able to use it.
Dr. Scott Schell, Chief Medical Officer at Cognizant
Health systems are increasingly using interoperable APIs and modern patient portals to provide individuals with easier access to their health records, test results, and care plans. At the same time, strong identity management, multifactor authentication, and zero-trust security frameworks are helping organizations balance accessibility with appropriate protection of sensitive health information.
Such great responses to consider here! Huge thank you to everyone who took the time out of their day to submit a quote to us! And thank you to all of you for taking the time out of your day to read this article! We could not do this without all of your support.
What strategies do you think organizations are using to ensure patients have secure and meaningful access to their health data? Let us know over on social media, we’d love to hear from all of you!
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