The problem is that we don't have a key server for doctors. I really wish someone would lobby the HHS to provide a key server that maps to providers' NPI. Then setting up PGP for email can be streamlined.

As it stands now, everything is fragmented because companies want to lock practitioners and health care orgs in. I'd love to see them start issuing "HIPAA compliant" seals for the implementation of open and secure standards that make it easier for health care systems to communicate and transfer data easily. That way all these closed solutions will have an incentive to actually make communication between practitioners easy and secure.

The biggest joke is secure messaging. There are all these apps for secure messaging between practitioners. Of course, you have to be using the same app to open a communication channel. I know at least one of these companies is using XMPP on their backend, so it's likely others are as well. They are literally using open source solutions to make a problem that the open source solution was supposed to solve! There's no reason why $SecureMessenger can not communicate with $MessageSecure. They just don't want that to happen because they think it will cause them to lose business.