"Clinical data collected by EHRs has tremendous variation, so it can't be easily mined or freely shared between people and institutions," she explains. "Standardizing and normalizing data as it is stored is an essential first step in making it accessible and usable. We know how to do this, but as an industry we haven't made the effort. More importantly, we need to create open access to the vast stores of clinical data that exist within healthcare."

"Right now this data is available to only those who collect it, and is limited in large part to the proprietary systems housing the data," she adds. "We need to free the data to drive better healthcare and better tools and systems. Eliminate barriers to data, and we will unleash an innovation firestorm."