While there are many bipartisan sticking points when it comes to health care reform, there's one issue that the majority of Americans seem to agree is important: improving access to digital health records. Congress and private industry have invested billions of dollars over the past two decades to digitize health data–an investment that proved vital for many health care consumers during the pandemic.

Still, while attitudes are slowly changing, many Americans may be wary about sharing access to their personal information. The Pew Charitable Trust asked them in June and July of 2020 about what information they're willing to share and how they would like to see it used. Among the key findings:

• 81% of adults support increased access to health information for patients and providers.
• More than two-thirds of adults want their clinicians to exchange some health information that federal data-sharing polices don't currently require, such as advanced care plans or end-of-life preferences, images and family medical histories.
• Most Americans want their data to be both more accessible and better protected. For example, although most respondents want to use apps on smartphones, tablets and computers to access their health information, those who expressed serious privacy concerns nearly doubled — from 35% to 62% — when they were told that federal privacy protections do not cover data stored on apps. Many said that extending these laws could help alleviate their apprehension.
• Across political party lines, most adults — 82% of Democrats, 66% of independents and 51% of Republicans — support additional federal measures to improve the accurate exchange of records among health care providers.
• About four in 10 survey respondents said the coronavirus pandemic made them more likely to support efforts that enable data-sharing among a patient's providers and let people download their personal data from electronic health records to apps on smartphones and other devices.
• By a roughly 2-to-1 margin, respondents were comfortable with their health providers scanning patient fingerprints or assigning individuals a unique number or code to ensure that different electronic health record systems correctly match records for the same person, a longstanding challenge of data exchange.

"As these systems continue to evolve, this survey shows that most Americans clearly recognize the potential benefits that improved health IT can offer, and they want this transformation of the health care system to continue," the survey report concluded "The federal government, electronic health record and app developers, and health-care providers have an opportunity to address some longstanding concerns with America's health IT systems. As this survey shows, patients are ready for them to take advantage of it."