Why sharing data is so hard

Despite a $26 billion investment in electronic health records, healthcare systems are not electronically sharing data, according to a report in Health Affairs. Only a small percentage of doctors (14%) are electronically sharing data with providers outside their organizations. The lack of a business case for information sharing, the cost of exchange, and the lack of standards adoption and interoperability of systems are believed to be the main reasons for this. The report suggests that the business model needs to be altered for information exchanges to flourish.