# Public procurement clauses banning data export fees and lock-in

Source: https://onco.cc/ideas/idea-data-procurement-open-api-clauses/  
OnCo record `idea-data-procurement-open-api-clauses` (Idea). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

Hospitals buying cancer software with public money would be required to include contract terms guaranteeing free, standard data export and no penalties for switching.

## Summary

Vendors often charge for data extraction or restrict interfaces. Model procurement clauses (open APIs, no export fees, data portability on contract end, right to audit) adopted by national purchasers would change vendor behaviour faster than regulation. The US 21st Century Cures Act information-blocking rules are the closest precedent; procurement is a complementary lever available to any public health system.

## Fields

- Kind: Idea
- Last checked: 2026-09-08
- Hypothesis: Adoption of standard clauses by national purchasers will eliminate export fees in new contracts within two years and reduce reported integration time for research extracts by a third.
- Rationale: Procurement power moved the software industry to open standards in government IT; hospital systems are one of the largest public software purchases and have not used the lever.
- Proposed test: Publish model clauses; get three national purchasers to adopt them; survey cancer centres on export costs and integration times before and after.
- Maturity: speculative
- Actor: policy

## Sources

- Bottleneck evidence (Data silos): AACR Project GENIE: https://www.aacr.org/professionals/research/aacr-project-genie/

## Connected records

- fronts: [AI & Computation](https://onco.cc/fronts/ai-computation/)
- bottlenecks: [Data silos](https://onco.cc/bottlenecks/b-data-silos/)

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