Like Spotify for Health Data: Tech Firms Crave App Opportunities

Patients should be able to get their health data as easily as their tunes on Spotify, but Apple, Google, and other tech giants are impatiently waiting for federal rules that guide how companies can seamlessly swap information.

Tech companies anxious to dive into the world of health apps want the Department of Health and Human Services to hurry up and release the overdue rules for sharing the data that would make those applications work—even if the rules aren’t perfect.

The rules, languishing at the White House since last fall, are a starting point and will consistently improve, Morgan Reed, president ...