This is one of the most promising yet frightening of all current healthcare IT trends.

The benefits of a national electronic patient record data system are huge:

• Medical professionals will be able to access an entire patient history, no matter where care has been provided, including tests, medications, X-rays, CT scans, previous surgeries, allergies, etc. This will aid in improved diagnoses, the elimination of unnecessary tests and procedures, and overall improved patient care.
• Patients will have singular access to their entire medical histories as well, providing far more transparency and comprehensiveness for them.
• Governments and national healthcare research and development organizations, such as the CDC, will have access to disease and illness trends among certain demographics and/or geographical areas. This is one of the most important healthcare industry trends, as it relates to overall public health.

At the same time, there is the growing fear of “Big Brother” in these digital health trends that also allow governments to access the electronic medical record of any individual they wish. This is a large concern for individuals with, for example, past substance abuse and mental health issues – people who are now healthy and do not want their medical past to haunt them.

There are already a number of “nationalized” databases that healthcare technology provides. For example, the U.S. Veterans Administration maintains a national database on all active and retired servicemen who use the VA system for their healthcare.

As our elderly population continues to increase, more and more enterprises in the healthcare business will participate in Medicare, and there are ever-increasing digital health trends in the nationalization of records of this demographic.

In countries with a national healthcare system, the trend toward nationalization of healthcare records is more easily accomplished and is moving at a rapid pace.

Look for trends toward EHR nationalization to continue in 2017. This will strain existing EHR technology, to be sure, and it will be up to IT pros to create better solutions.