The news: More than 60 healthcare and technology players, including Epic, Amazon, Apple, Google, UnitedHealth Group, and OpenAI, signed a voluntary pledge put forth by the Trump administration to make it easier for consumers to access their medical data.

Digging into the details: The agreement relies on an interoperability framework that simplifies health-record sharing between patients and their doctors. A separate component calls on companies to develop tools that let consumers share their medical information with third-party apps and AI platforms.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services provided examples of patients using apps for diabetes or obesity management, or conversational AI tools to help people check symptoms and navigate care options. These apps and tools exist today, but they rarely have access to a person’s entire medical history.

Why it matters: The US healthcare system is highly fragmented. Electronic health record companies don’t connect well enough with disparate systems, and many consumers get care from a range of provider organizations and channels, including telehealth, in-person, urgent care, hospitals, specialty, and more.

Put together, this makes it extremely difficult to track a patient’s complete medical history in a single system.

• Over half of doctors say they’re regularly frustrated with how hard it is to access clinical information about their patients from other providers, per a March 2025 athenahealth survey.
• 80% admit that the lack of data sharing between systems increases their stress levels.

Our take: It’s not the first time that industry players have pledged to improve health data sharing—but we haven’t seen enough progress due to a lack of accountability or enforcement. Many consumers also likely have concerns about how tech companies will use and protect their personal information. Additionally, Big Tech's role is unclear since their past forays into health tech have typically flopped.

If medical record sharing does get easier, it would be a massive opportunity for the growing cohort of digital health companies and apps that have already been ramping up their AI capabilities. Layering a person’s medical data on top would drive a much more personalized experience while arming users with insights to help them make smarter healthcare decisions.

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