Health care is a data-intensive industry. The methods for collecting, storing, and retrieving clinical data have been evolving within a global electronic ecosystem comprising computers, mobile devices, the Web, social media, and a more connected world. The digitization of health care is nearly complete. Imaging studies, laboratory assays, drug delivery systems, diagnostic devices, robot-assisted surgery, computer-assisted prosthetics, and biomonitors all rely on computers and electronic data systems. The biggest holdout for the digital health care transformation has been the routine clinical data derived from patients and recorded in health records. National policy such as the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Care and the Affordable Care Act of 2010 have led to a rapid acceleration in the amount of clinical information that is captured electronically and potentially usable in meaningful ways. The day when the business of health care is conducted without paper seems near at hand.