Under HIPAA 45 CFR § 164.524, providers must give patients, upon request, access to their protected health information in the form and format of the individual’s choosing, including electronic format and via third-party application. In order to address ongoing industry resistance and barriers to interoperability, in March 2020 the ONC released the Final Cures Act Rule, which is grounded in the 21st Century Cures Act and mandates that patients be allowed greater control and access to their health data, targeting vendors and technologies that block information access.

David Schoolcraft, Partner and Chair of the Digital Health Group at Ogden Murphy Wallace, sees this as a pivotal moment for healthcare’s digital transformation. “This landmark regulation is also a massive undertaking as many stakeholders are currently non-compliant and are struggling to navigate the regulatory complexities,” he said. “As ONC starts enforcement, organizations must prioritize deepening their knowledge of these mandates and implementing changes to adapt to the evolving landscape, or run the risk of incurring significant penalties.”


Life Image began working to solve healthcare’s interoperability challenges nearly 15 years ago, developing a digital platform with applications using common standards to streamline the rapid exchange of medical images and related data. The company is now the largest global medical evidence network specializing in the sharing of imaging data and related clinical information. It offers a mature technical solution used by 90% of the top hospitals in the United States.


About Life Image
Life Image is the world’s largest medical evidence network providing access to points of care and curated clinical and imaging data. It is the only company in the market today with Real World Imaging™ that provides large-scale, heterogeneous, de-identified imaging sets for research that are linkable to other longitudinal data. Founded in 2008, Life Image has created a digital platform using industry-leading interoperability standards to connect 13,000 facilities with more than 160,000 U.S. providers and 58,000 global clinics. Its network of hospitals, physicians, patients, life sciences, medical devices, and telehealth is interconnected with a technical ecosystem of EHRs, PACS, AI solutions, cloud environments, and analytics platforms. Life Image is the parent company of Mammosphere, a patient engagement platform that empowers women to take control of their breast health by storing all their breast imaging in one secure, online location.

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