Patient-Driven Sharing of Health Information: A National Effort to Advance Equitable Interoperability

Abstract

The goal of national interoperability is to improve care quality and decrease administrative burden and costs. Patients, providers, and other stakeholders are increasingly concerned that indiscriminate sharing of data may have deleterious, permanent consequences, as well as fail to provide granular control over the sharing of individual health data. Data segmentation and consent standards to date have been limited in scope and implementation, which has hindered efforts to scale data sharing preferences. Shift, an independent expert stakeholder task force, has been convened to mature standards, terminologies, and consensus-driven implementation guidance, which are prerequisites for more robust policy drivers needed to support nationwide sensitive data segmentation and consent capabilities. This paper describes Shift's framework and processes as means to advance equitable interoperability.

Keywords

data segmentation - granular data sharing - privacy - health data exchange - data sharing - interoperability - patient empowerment - health equity

Protection of Human and Animal Subjects

No human and/or animal subjects were included in this work.

Publication History

Received: 06 January 2025

Accepted: 21 April 2025

Article published online:
29 August 2025

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