{"id":86977,"date":"2024-02-20T16:07:11","date_gmt":"2024-02-20T21:07:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medcitynews.com\/?p=664971"},"modified":"2024-04-01T16:04:25","modified_gmt":"2024-04-01T20:04:25","slug":"data-interoperability-healthcare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medcitynews.com\/2024\/02\/data-interoperability-healthcare\/","title":{"rendered":"Tools for Better Data Interoperability Are Here \u2014 But Providers Aren\u2019t Adopting Them"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The healthcare industry has notoriously struggled with disconnected data systems and a lack of interoperability. When health information cannot be easily exchanged between different systems and providers, it leads to fragmented care, medical errors and delays in treatment \u2014 not to mention an incredible amount of frustration and inconvenience for both providers and patients.<\/span><\/p>\n

Software developers have been working hard in recent years to create tools and data sharing standards that foster a more cohesive and integrated approach. However, these tools have a serious adoption problem, experts said last week during a <\/span>virtual panel<\/span><\/a> held by Reuters Events.<\/span><\/p>\n

Alistair Erskine, <\/span>Emory Healthcare<\/span><\/a>\u2019s chief information and digital officer, pointed out that most provider referrals are still done by fax, even though there are tools available to send them digitally. Most providers use EHRs that are able to pull a patient\u2019s health information and transport it to the EHR of the new provider to whom they\u2019ve been referred, he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Despite data sharing standards like FHIR and DICOM \u2014 and despite \u201cthe fact that the data has already been digitized\u201d \u2014 completing a provider referral is still not a smooth process, Erskine remarked. He stated that 98% of referrals are done by fax even though they could \u201cof course\u201d be done electronically.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cEven though the standards are there, we have to make sure that people safely log into their systems, and we have to make sure that people are able to find their patient in their systems. And if you navigate from one system to the next, that presents a barrier to entry. It’s easier to just take a piece of paper, write what you need and send it in a fax,\u201d Erskine explained.<\/span><\/p>\n

Healthcare leaders shouldn\u2019t assume that providers are using interoperability tools simply because these tools are available, he declared.<\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s why Emory is trying to make it as easy as possible for providers to conduct referrals electronically, Erskine remarked. He said the health system is embedding links into its systems for single sign-on and in-context patient lookups so that \u201cproviders don\u2019t have to log into anything\u201d and can quickly find their patients\u2019 information. He also mentioned that Emory is testing ways to use direct messaging to better connect doctors across systems.<\/span><\/p>\n

Another panelist \u2014 Micky Tripathi, head of <\/span>The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC)<\/span><\/a> \u2014 agreed with Erskine\u2019s remarks.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen it’s easier to fax something, people will continue to fax things. There are adoption issues,\u201d Tripathi stated.<\/span><\/p>\n

He described a recent experience he had with his mother to illustrate the healthcare industry\u2019s interoperability adoption problem. His mother had recently undergone a medical procedure in an acute care hospital and was getting transferred to a rehabilitation hospital \u201cless than a mile\u201d down the road, he noted.<\/span><\/p>\n

Tripathi said that he knows these two hospitals exchange patients \u201call the time.\u201d He also said that he knows one hospital operates on Epic\u2019s EHR, and the other on Cerner\u2019s.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI know they’re connected on the back end with an interoperability network called Carequality. I know they are for a fact. And yet, when they discharged my mom, they printed off the record and handed it to me,\u201d Tripathi declared.<\/span><\/p>\n

This shows that healthcare workers don\u2019t find it easy to transfer patients\u2019 information electronically, he pointed out.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In Tripathi\u2019s view, health systems and other provider organizations should do more to encourage their doctors to stop faxing \u2014 both by training staff on how to use electronic referral tools and making these tools easy to use within the EHR.<\/span><\/p>\n

Photo: LeoWolfert, Getty Images<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There are plenty tools and data sharing standards available to foster a more cohesive and integrated approach to healthcare interoperability. However, providers aren’t really adopting these tools, experts said during a recent panel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31620,"featured_media":14922,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"featured_image_focal_point":[],"homepage_placement":"top","homepage_placements":{"top":true,"featured":true,"sidebar":false},"homepage_alternative_layout":false,"featured_categories":[],"hide_from_feed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[117,48,24],"tags":[37768,44101,44824,6777,45517],"class_list":["post-86977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health-tech","category-hospitals-channel","category-top-story","tag-data-sharing","tag-emory-healthcare","tag-healthcare-interoperability","tag-onc","tag-referrals"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nTools for Better Data Interoperability Are Here \u2014 But Providers Aren\u2019t Adopting Them - MedCity News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/medcitynews.com\/2024\/02\/data-interoperability-healthcare\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Tools for Better Data Interoperability Are Here \u2014 But Providers Aren\u2019t Adopting Them - MedCity News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"There are plenty tools and data sharing standards available to foster a more cohesive and integrated approach to healthcare interoperability. 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