> Reminder #5 – How IB actors make EHI available for access, exchange, and use can and will vary based on who the IB actor is, their technological sophistication, and who it is that is seeking to access, exchange or use an IB actor’s EHI. > The information blocking regulations do not require IB actors to adopt or use certain technologies or platforms. IB actors may use “patient portals,” other web interfaces, application programming interfaces (APIs), and a multitude of technologies and platforms to make EHI available for access, exchange, or use. The information blocking regulations focus on practices that are likely to interfere with, prevent, or materially discourage access, exchange, or use of EHI. For example, while the information blocking regulations don’t prescribe specific technologies, how IB actors design, implement, use, or limit technologies in relation to the access, exchange, or use of EHI could implicate the information blocking regulations.

This is the part I had to go looking for. I've been in this space for just a bit now, and I can tell you that like most of American healthcare, it's a shitshow. Get ready to develop an app against your doctor's EHR API if they don't expose this via a patient portal.

I don't think the docs are too happy about giving you access to "their" work product, AKA your health data. And to some extent I sort of see where they're coming from - if they were photographers, they'd actually hold copyrights over images they take of you.

But the goals here are at least laudable and there is some rather glacial advancement.