The US government has reached an agreement with tech giants, including Google, Amazon, OpenAI, Anthropic and Apple to begin developing a digital health ecosystem.
The Trump Administration has unveiled an initiative focussing on the healthcare of Americans, specifically around diabetes and weight management.
The government will work with tech firms to create a framework for patients and providers to share information and build more accessible resources and tools to help people stay informed about their health.
This will include weight management apps; using agentic AI as assistants to help check symptoms and schedule appointments; and efforts to reduce manual tasks and paperwork in healthcare.
“For decades, bureaucrats and entrenched interests buried health data and blocked patients from taking control of their health,” said HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
“That ends today. We’re tearing down digital walls, returning power to patients, and rebuilding a health system that serves the people. This is how we begin to Make America Healthy Again.”
Other digital tools expected to be launched include QR codes and apps that register patients for check-ins or track medications.
The project will be led by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). At a White House event, CMS unveiled voluntary criteria for trusted, patient-centred and practical data exchange that will be accessible for all network types—health information networks and exchanges, Electronic Health Records (EHR), and tech platforms.
“We have the tools and information available now to empower patients to improve their outcomes and their healthcare experience,” said CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz.
“For too long, patients in this country have been burdened with a healthcare system that has not kept pace with the disruptive innovations that have transformed nearly every other sector of our economy. With the commitments made by these entrepreneurial companies today, we stand ready for a paradigm shift in the U.S. healthcare system for the benefit of patients and providers.”
More than 60 companies pledged to work collaboratively to deliver results for the American people in the first quarter of 2026. Twenty-one networks pledged to meet the CMS Interoperability Framework criteria to become CMS Aligned Networks. Eleven health systems or providers committed to participating and supporting patient use, and seven EHRs committed to facilitating data exchange and helping “kill the clipboard.”
It comes as new research published in JAMA Network Open revealed that physicians who use AI are perceived as less competent and trustworthy by the U.S. public.
For the study, researchers created a sample of 1,276 U.S. adults based on the 2021 census. The study participants were shown fictitious social media or billboard advertisements for family physicians.
Participants received similar ads but were divided into four groups: one received ads that mentioned the physician used AI for administrative purposes, the second viewed ads noting the physician used AI for diagnostic purposes, the third received ads stating the physician used AI for therapeutic purposes and the last were shown ads that made no mention of AI use.
Participants perceived physicians as significantly less competent, less trustworthy and less empathic when they were told the physicians used AI for administrative, diagnostic or therapeutic purposes compared with physicians who did not use AI.