Trump tech initiative proposed to streamline healthcare services
July 30 (UPI) -- Sharing healthcare information among medical service providers might be easier under a plan proposed by President Donald Trump on Wednesday.
Trump and U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. proposed a partnership with tech firms to make it easier for Americans to share their personal healthcare information with health services providers.
"This will allow patients to easily transmit information from one doctor to another, even if they're [in] different networks and using different record keeping systems," Trump said during an event dubbed Make Health Tech Great Again on Wednesday.
"America's healthcare networks have been overdue for a high-tech upgrade, and that's what we're doing," Trump said.
"The existing systems are often slow, costly and incompatible with one another," he added. "But with today's announcement, we take a major step to bring healthcare into the digital age."
He called the move "vital" for making it more convenient and faster for people to obtain improved healthcare services and enjoy better health.
Officials with more than 60 companies agreed to partner with the Trump administration to make the sharing of health information easier and more efficient through apps and other forms of electronic communications.
"For decades, bureaucrats and entrenched interests buried health data and blocked patients from taking control of their health," Kennedy said during the event.
"That ends today," he said. "We're tearing down digital walls, returning power to patients and rebuilding a health system that serves the people."
"This is how we begin to make America healthy again," he added.
In addition to Trump and Kennedy, many others in the Trump administration attended the event that was held at the White House on Wednesday afternoon.
The announcement has raised concern about the security of people's sensitive health information, which Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services spokeswoman Catherine Howden downplayed.
The "initiative aims to build a smarter, more secure and more personalized healthcare system," Howden said in a prepared statement.
The initiative "improves patient outcomes, reduces provider burden and drives greater value through private sector innovation," she added.
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