The Evolution of Health Information Technology for Enhanced Patient-Centric Care in the United States: Data-Driven Descriptive Study

Federal incentives have contributed to the widespread adoption of EHRs and broad digitization in health care, while efforts to promote interoperability have encouraged collaboration across health care entities. As a result, interoperable clinical care data exchange, e-prescribing, electronic public health reporting, and patient access to health information have grown substantially over the past quarter century and have been shown to improve health care outcomes. However, interoperability hurdles, usability issues, data security concerns, and inequitable patient access persist. Addressing these issues will require collaborative efforts among stakeholders to promote data standardization, implement governance structures, and establish robust health information exchange networks.