Tech giant Google is announcing the general availability of technology that, if widely adopted, could make it easier for patients to access their own health information via third-party apps. Health care systems could warm to the technology, known as the Google Healthcare API, as new government mandates loom that will require them to make it easier for patients to see and use their health data. However, Google’s dominant business as an advertising company that uses customer data to target ads has created negative publicity and stalled some past initiatives in the health space. Google is currently the third largest cloud tech provider, behind Amazon and Microsoft, and it’s Cloud’s health care leaders note that the Covid-19 pandemic shows again why health data interoperability is important. It can help support the kinds of efforts that are already underway, such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s new app that aims to share information from electronic health records with public health departments.

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