Healthcare De Jure: Jason Prestinario, CEO, Particle Health

In this episode of Healthcare NOW Radio, host Matt Fisher sits down with Jason Prestinario, CEO of Particle Health, to explore the transformative potential of healthcare data and the persistent barriers to accessing longitudinal medical records. Prestinario shares his journey from data engineering at Palantir to leading healthcare data initiatives at Komodo Health and now Particle Health, emphasizing how the real challenges in healthcare data aren't technical—but systemic and cultural. He highlights the critical gap between the 21st Century Cures Act’s promise of patient access to medical records and the reality: despite available APIs and legal frameworks, patients—including Prestinario himself—often receive zero records when requesting them. He attributes this to weak enforcement of information blocking penalties, lack of accountability, and institutional resistance to sharing data, even though the technology to enable it already exists. The conversation underscores the urgent need for both regulatory enforcement and cultural change to empower patients and clinicians with complete, actionable health data. Key takeaways include: 1) Data privacy and usefulness are not linear trade-offs—advanced techniques like de-identification allow deep insights without compromising security; 2) The 21st Century Cures Act has the right tools, but enforcement is missing, creating a compliance gap; 3) Patient access to their own records should be a right, not a privilege, and is essential for innovation in AI-driven clinical tools; 4) Real progress depends on fixing the 'supply side' of data before demand-side innovations can succeed; 5) Grassroots advocacy and public pressure are vital to drive change. The episode ends on a cautiously optimistic note, with Prestinario believing that sustained regulatory focus from CMS, ONC, and HHS will eventually catalyze meaningful transformation.