Healthcare is democratizing, becoming more accessible to people, in large part because there is more data available than ever before and the pace at which individuals and organizations can share data is accelerating.

That’s according to the second annual Health Trends Report from Stanford Medicine.  The democratization is characterized by two major factors, the distribution of data and the ability to generate and apply insights at scale, the combination of which gives patients the opportunity to use their data, technology and access of expertise to take charge of their own well-being and manage their own health.

“At the same time, new tools are now available that can rapidly and accurately interpret medical data—from radiology imaging to genomics—and push insights directly to the point of care, which is less and less defined by physical location,” wrote Lloyd B. Minor, dean of the Stanford University School of Medicine, in the report’s introduction.

Among those new tools are breakthroughs in artificial intelligence (AI) that are helping researchers and providers meet the challenge presented by the fact that the growth and spread of data have generated more information than any one person could interpret.

Medical experts are training algorithms to analyze vast quantities of data and extract insights and these algorithms are more efficient precisely due to the increase of data, which could improve predictive capabilities, enable greater personalization and democratize access to enhanced care.

Where healthcare used to operate as closed, siloed institutions with the research hospital at the hub, causing the flow of information to simply go from expert to patient, the digitization of patient health records has allowed data to flow more freely.

“This transformation puts the patient at the center, encouraging the spread of medical knowledge in unprecedented ways,” the report authors wrote.

With the access to their data, patients are engaged with more forms of information sharing, using wearable technology like smart watches to monitor and manage their health.

Still, the authors argue, in order for healthcare to truly democratize, information needs to flow even more freely than it is currently, and the cite interoperability as the biggest hurdle to achieve free-flowing information.

“We haven’t yet reached the promised land of digitally enabled healthcare and open access to data,” wrote Dr. Minor in the introduction. “But we are undoubtedly on our way to a future of care that is more predictive, preventive and personalized.”