White House Says 60 Firms Commit to Build Digital Health Ecosystem

The White House said Wednesday (July 30) that several healthcare and tech companies pledged to begin building a “next-generation digital health ecosystem.”

This initiative will begin by working to make it easier to share information between patients and providers and to increase the availability of tools like apps that will provide patients with information and resources, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) said in a Wednesday press release.

The information-sharing between patients and providers will be facilitated by a new CMS Interoperability Framework, while the tools for patients will include apps that help with diabetes and obesity management, conversational artificial intelligence assistants that help with health-related tasks, and tools to “kill the clipboard” by replacing paper intake forms with digital check-in methods, according to the release.

Among the 60-plus firms that have committed to this project are Amazon, Anthropic, Apple, Google and OpenAI, per the release.

In total, a list of early adopters provided with the release includes 21 data networks, 11 health systems and providers, 18 patient-facing apps (conversational AI assistants), eight patient-facing apps (diabetes and obesity), 12 patient-facing apps (“Kill the Clipboard”) and five payers.

Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., said in the release that health data and other resources have long been blocked by “bureaucrats and entrenched interests.”

“That ends today,” Kennedy said. “We’re tearing down digital walls, returning power to patients, and rebuilding a health system that serves the people.”

CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz said in the release that this initiative aims to bring to the healthcare system the sort of innovations that have transformed other sectors of the economy.

“With the commitments 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,” Oz said.

One of the tech companies that committed to participate, artificial intelligence (AI) startup Anthropic, said in a Wednesday press release that this initiative will enable patients and their doctors to access health information when and where they need it.

“Healthcare silos have persisted for far too long, and we believe Anthropic’s AI technology can play a transformative role in eliminating these silos to improve the delivery of care for millions of Americans,” Anthropic Chief Product Officer Mike Krieger said in the release.

The PYMNTS Intelligence and AI-ID collaboration “Generative AI Can Elevate Health and Revolutionize Healthcare” found that the generative AI market for healthcare is projected to reach $22 billion by 2032 as stakeholders in healthcare, technology and investment sectors recognize the technology’s potentially transformative impact on the sector.