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The COVID-19 is still going strong against human civilization. Even if we reach normalcy or be successful in eradicating it from the face of the Earth, the nightmares will continue haunting us. From countrywide lockdowns to industries closing their production lines to hospitals struggling to accommodate the rising number of patients, human-faced a never imagined catastrophe. It was pathetic to see people stockpiling essentials and medicines and fighting over it. But what was further appalling was the state of deficient in personal protective equipment (PPE) and the lousy healthcare system. Sure we realized the importance of inculcating modern technologies, the possibility of work from home; nothing compares to the fact that data storage needs a renovation.

Times are changing, so are our priorities! We need to understand what is important and what is not and upgrade ourselves in accordance to it. Like before 2009, most of our healthcare records were on pen and paper, unlike now where data is digitalized, which did not exist century back. Yet the transition is slow. We have obsolete versions of the Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) system, even though several Electronic Health Record (EHR) vendors are eager to safeguard these vast databanks. As health data is viewed as a valuable asset now, it is also kept under massive radar to prevent any data theft occurrences and protect privacy. Hence the EDI messaging and portal scraping system must be replaced under highly regulated protocol with an emphasis on data portability.

Besides, bureaucracy norms are making it difficult to access the already opaque data. The retrieval of this data is essential as to various participants like patients, providers, payers (insurance companies), pharmaceutical companies present in the healthcare ecosystems. Whether it is for diagnosis or study patient's healthcare history, or research purposes or maybe settling insurance, the flow among the stakeholder must be transparent. Not only that,but it also makes it extremely frustrating when a medical bill is calculated for a person. And this also may not happen when the same person plans to purchase Friday night movie tickets or figure out how much he needs to save to buy his next holiday trip or his daughter's summer camp. This limited flow of healthcare information is acting as a major restrain in the way to achieve next-level healthcare reform with better outcomes and reduced costs.

Hence it is urgent to build a platform for data backup. Customers must have access to this space, with control, authority, and ownership of their health information. One such promising example is Particle Health — a startUp health portfolio company.  The company has built the connections and interfaces to query over 250 million people in the US, aggregate all matching medical records across many sources, convert data from proprietary to standard formats, and return only the data that is authorized via API. It does not store nor leak private data nor requires any kind of login ID. Particle enables access to healthcare data with the highest combination of coverage, authority, accuracy, reliability, and security. Owing to these exciting features, it received Series A investment from Menlo Ventures past month. Plus, now it is granting free access to its API for any COVID-19 related queries.

Change is a pivotal key that leads to technological advancements. Hence it is high time to put efforts into building data-driven workflows in healthcare, cultivate interoperability, and, if possible, speed up the EHR inclusion into the framework for the next big push.