The ‘patient summary’ has an important role in delivering continuity and coordination of a person’s health and care. ‘patient summary’ implementations are pervasive and important to both healthcare providers and to their subjects of care. The digital version of the patient summary, however, often falls short of its intended functionality and its potential value. The requirements of summarization and what they mean for the communication situation in which the summarization of health and care data takes place has been analyzed. The purpose is to understand the limitations and potential of current digital solutions for communicating a ‘patient summary’. The International Patient Summary (IPS) standard is a step towards communicating safe, relevant patient summaries for use throughout the world. To meet this grand challenge, the IPS can capitalize upon the inherent capacity and competence of all people to produce and consume summaries.