A recent report from Stanford Medicine outlines the challenges and opportunities in healthcare’s slow progress toward democratization.

I recently read a report from Stanford Medicine that discussed the democratization of healthcare. It pointed out a few key trends that are combining to break down the barriers that have caused healthcare to function as a closed system of heavily siloed institutions. Traditionally, information-sharing both within and across systems has been stymied by a lack of consistency in the way health data is recorded and transmitted, by patient privacy concerns and by a culture where the flow of information goes one way: from doctor to patient. But that’s starting to change. image: iStock