Today, the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) released guidance on outlining how a cohesive, comprehensive digital and data architecture can address persistent interoperability challenges across the health ecosystem. The paper also identifies concrete actions to align stakeholders and establish long-term strategies for implementing a seamless national digital architecture that can revolutionize the potential health gains from a system that continually learns and improves—a learning health system.
Much of today’s society runs on interconnected digital data, from global communications and financial transactions to retail and logistics. Yet the health sector continues to lag in building the robust digital infrastructure needed to fully promote and capture the benefits of innovation. This gap constrains progress in efficiency, access, prevention, diagnosis, treatment, discovery, and public health. A strong digital and data architecture would provide the foundation for seamless information exchange and true interoperability, accelerate innovation, ensure that providers, payers, and patients can access the right information at the right time, and reduce fragmentation across the health care ecosystem.
“Architecture is more than a technical specification—it is the foundation for breaking down silos and unlocking system-wide impact,” said Peter Lee, President of Microsoft Research and co-author of the NAM paper. “It signals a commitment to a clear, adaptable roadmap for the future.”
Standardized, well-designed infrastructure is essential to enable seamless data flow across disparate systems. Without a coherent data architecture, organizations risk fragmented technologies that impede care delivery. A strong data architecture reduces duplication, lowers costs, and supports more efficient, high-quality care. This framework aligns well with the aims of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) initiatives to modernize and strengthen the nation’s digital health ecosystem: CMS Health Technology Ecosystem initiative and CMS Aligned Networks.
“CMS’s Health Technology Ecosystem is demonstrating how an active convener can accelerate implementation—aligning technical standards, incentives, and workflows across hundreds of organizations,” said Aneesh Chopra, Chairman of the Arcadia Institute and former (and first) Chief Technology Officer of the United States. “This paper offers a path to reinforce that progress as durable national infrastructure.”
In a complementary project, the NAM is also developing a forthcoming publication on positioning health data as an essential public utility—building on the architectural foundation outlined in this paper. That publication will articulate a comprehensive, multi‑level strategy for data stewardship, governance, and regulation through a roadmap to the establishment of health data as a trusted and secure resource for continuous health system learning and improvement.
Read the NAM Discussion Paper: https://nam.edu/perspectives/toward-a-national-health-digital-and-data-architecture-laying-the-foundation-for-digital-transformation/https://doi.org/10.31478/202603b
This paper is the first in a series produced by the National Academy of Medicine’s Commission on Investment Imperatives for a Healthy Nation. Established to reimagine a US health care system that puts people first, the Commission will release additional papers over the coming year outlining its vision for a new health system, the priorities that must be addressed, and the actions needed to turn that vision into reality. Authored by experts assembled under the charge of the National Academy of Medicine, the paper was completed with support from Healing Works Foundation, Doris Duke Foundation, and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. The views presented are those of individual contributors and do not represent formal consensus positions of the sponsoring organizations, authors’ organizations, the National Academy of Medicine, or the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.
