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Integration of AI in healthcare requires an interoperable digital data ecosystem

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Electronic health information, including from electronic health records, is needed to develop AI tools for health, but the seamless flow of data will require standards and interoperability.

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Fig. 1: Timeline of EHR APIs developed by SMART Health IT.

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Acknowledgements

This work was funded by 90AX0022 from ONC and by U01TR002623 from the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, US National Institutes of Health. The authors thank J. Jones for drafting the initial version of the figure.

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Correspondence to Kenneth D. Mandl.

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Competing interests

D.G. is principal, FHIR and Healthcare Data Standards, for Central Square Solutions. J.C.M. is employed by Microsoft Corporation Boston Children’s Hospital receives philanthropic contributions on behalf of K.D.M.’s laboratory from the SMART Advisory Committee with members including Microsoft, Cambia, Humana, and HCA Healthcare. K.D.M. holds equity in SMART Check In.

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Mandl, K.D., Gottlieb, D. & Mandel, J.C. Integration of AI in healthcare requires an interoperable digital data ecosystem. Nat Med 30, 631–634 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-023-02783-w

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