What is portable data?

Portable data is information that the data owner can freely share. Anyone granted access to this data can read it. Data-portable file formats, such as verifiable credentials, are compatible with any system.

Because different healthcare providers use different clinical management systems, sharing important patient information across providers can be difficult. 

Imagine, for example, that a patient seeks emergency medical care while traveling overseas. Patient information “stuck” in siloed systems may lead another provider to treat the patient without fully understanding their medical history. In addition to negatively affecting the patient’s treatment outcomes, this can also lead to inefficient workflows and increased costs. For example, repeating a test when its results are already available in a shared record wastes time and resources.

Data portability enables the exchange of information necessary for providers to make informed decisions about patient health and achieve optimal outcomes. Some solutions, like Electronic Health Records (EHRs), already support data exchange. Effective healthcare analytics tools also support data portability by connecting numerous EHRs and claims data sources to provide a holistic view of patient care.

 

Who is involved in data sharing?

There are three key stakeholders to consider as health organizations explore data portability: patients, the government, and providers.

1. Patients

Companies looking to use patients’ medical data for their products or services must offer a significant enough benefit to incentivize patients to share their data. These incentives can include: 

• • Providing patients with further insights into their physical and/or medical health
  • Saving time and money on healthcare
  • Improving patients’ access to their own medical records
  • Receiving more targeted treatment options

 

2. The government

Many national and international governing bodies have laws and regulations in place to protect different parties involved in healthcare data sharing. Some well-known regulations include:

• • Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA): A law setting standards to protect patient health information (PHI) from unauthorized disclosure in the U.S.
  • Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR): A standard for exchanging health information electronically, regardless of the ways local EHRs represent or store the data
  • General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR): A regulation in EU law on data protection and privacy for all individual citizens of the European Union and the European Economic Area

 

3. Healthcare providers

As collectors and sharers of medical data, companies and healthcare providers are responsible for handling and protecting patients’ data. Security and privacy are important here, especially to retain public trust. This way, they can ensure that data is handled in accordance with regulations and prevent misuse of information.

 

What are the benefits of data portability?

Portable medical data can benefit all stakeholders by allowing both patients and healthcare providers to access health data and its insights. 

For instance, let’s return to our earlier example of a patient needing emergency health services while traveling overseas. Here is how data portability helps both patients and providers in this situation:

• With remote access to their own health records, patients can access their medical information no matter where they are. 
• For healthcare professionals treating patients who have been treated by other providers, portable data centralizes all necessary information, enabling safe, coordinated, and effective treatments tailored to each patient’s specific needs.

Portable medical data has value beyond patients and healthcare professionals. For example, health insurance companies can benefit from data portability to streamline insurance claim processing. This can save these companies significant time and costs associated with collecting and verifying patient data.

 

Pitfalls of complete data access

While medical data portability offers benefits for all stakeholders, providers should be careful not to blindly trust information in a patient’s EHR. According to Arcadia’s data warehousing guide, data quality can directly impact a patient’s outcome, as erroneous data can lead to misguided decision-making. The accuracy of content in patients’ medical records may be affected by human errors, such as:

• Copy and paste errors from external sources
• Spelling and data entry errors
• Subjective opinions on treatment plans
• Missing details that should be considered for diagnoses, treatments, or dosages

As Dr. Anthony Foo Tun Lin stressed in a 2022 Medical Fair Asia panel, accessible medical records are not a guarantee of good healthcare — they’re a valuable asset for providing the best possible patient care. He says that “good healthcare comes from the doctor making a connection with the patient and asking questions during the consultation that lead to a formulation or treatment plan that is appropriate for the patient.”

To limit any misuse of data, Accredify Nucleus, our Digital Identity Wallet that also serves as a Digital Health Passport for users, puts control of medical data into patients’ hands. This way, users can easily share only the necessary information for the time it’s needed.

 

How to streamline data sharing

Looking to the future, it’s evident that data portability will play an even more important role in healthcare. With the continued advancement of EHRs, telehealth services, and digital health passports, it will become easier than ever for patients to access their own medical data and share it with healthcare professionals. As a result, patients will be able to take a more active role in their own care, enabling them and their healthcare providers alike to better understand their overall health. 

Here are a few strategies that will become increasingly important for the future of medical data sharing:

1. Implement Verifiable Credentials 

In our increasingly digital world, the demand for secure, portable identification is at an all-time high. Digital passports and identity wallets are transforming how we manage personal information.

To ensure medical reports are compatible with upcoming national digital health passports, clinics need to issue their medical reports and results as verifiable credentials. This also protects the patient’s medical data against misuse, fraud, human error, or any other processing issue, since verifiable credentials are machine-readable, instantly verifiable, and tamper-proof.

By moving away from physical paperwork, these tools enable patients to securely store and verify their health status, whether online or offline. These solutions provide “true-to-source” data that is easy to verify and share, effectively putting data ownership back where it belongs: in the hands of the patient.

 

2. Leverage Decentralized Data Platforms 

To modernize healthcare, it’s essential to break down “silos” that keep vital information trapped within single institutions. Adopting decentralized, interoperable platforms provides a way to instantly share and verify patient records.

Implementing these systems requires a unified front. When stakeholders use modern data management tools, they create a collaborative ecosystem. This collective effort ensures that the resulting system is not only technologically advanced but also intuitive and accessible for every user.

 

3. Develop Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) 

Bringing transformative healthcare solutions to market requires more than just good ideas; it requires the structural support of Public-Private Partnerships. By forming industry-led PPPs, health teams can identify specific clinical pain points where government resources and regulatory frameworks can most effectively clear the path for innovation.

By bridging the gap between public-sector scale and private-sector agility, healthcare organizations can create targeted, accessible solutions that significantly improve the quality of daily patient care.

Healthcare providers are increasingly recognizing the importance of data sharing to provide better patient care. However, several challenges currently stand in the way of effective data sharing, including isolated systems, a lack of standardization, limited accessibility, and insufficient resources.

For the shift towards full data portability to occur, stakeholders must provide the necessary infrastructure and support. This includes developing standards for data exchange, building trust among stakeholders, providing resources for data management, educating the public, and participating in PPP projects with smaller players to address specific problem areas.