By Alex Moore
This July, the Trump administration secured commitments from several high-profile healthcare and technology firms to build a next-generation digital health ecosystem. More than 60 firms, including Amazon, Google, and OpenAI, have signed up to start working together as soon as the first quarter of 2026.
The partnership’s efforts will focus on two broad priorities, according to the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). The first priority will be promoting what’s called an interoperability framework, which is a set of standards designed to make it easier to share information between patients and healthcare providers. The idea is that by making it easier to exchange information between healthcare providers, patients, and insurers more efficiently, healthcare systems will be able to “kill the clipboard” and make a technological leap when it comes to managing healthcare data.
The second priority will be introducing new tools and apps that patients can use to make more informed healthcare decisions. Examples provided by the administration include diabetes and obesity management apps, conversational AI assistants to help patients check their symptoms and make appointments, and digital forms at healthcare facilities to replace traditional paper ones.
In a press release accompanying the announcement, CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz suggested that the effort will help the American healthcare system’s technology catch up to other industries. “For too long, patients in this country have been burdened with a healthcare system that has not kept pace with the disruptive innovations that have transformed nearly every other sector of the economy,” he said. “With the commitments already made by these entrepreneurial companies today, we stand ready for a paradigm shift in the U.S. healthcare system for the benefit of patients and providers.”
