Open Data Policy Has Far-Reaching Implications for Health Care

[Commentary] In May 2013, the Office of Management and Budget released an executive order that requires federal agencies to use machine-readable and open formats -- in addition to data standards and other regulations -- for creating and collecting information. This new policy will have a significant impact on how public and private organizations access and leverage information. It will also help build a foundation for easily sharing health data in the future. Although the OMB executive order applies across different industries, there are specific implications for health care. In a nutshell, the requirements mean that key data will be more readily accessible and usable for analysis and research, in addition to other innovative purposes such as commercial development.

[Viet Nguyen, M.D., is the chief medical information officer at Systems Made Simple, Inc., which provides IT systems and services to support critical architecture, data and application challenges in the healthcare industry. Rob Sax is the chief technology officer at SMS.]