Health Information Exchange (HIE) is happening every minute of every day. Your personal health information is moving and being viewed to improve the quality of your healthcare and lower the costs. The job will not be complete until all health records are digital and interoperable. Here’s what’s happening to make that reality.
Listen
From Healthcare APPtitude on HealthcareNOW Radio, host Jerry Lepore, MobileSmith Health’s CEO, sits down with Rod Cruz, General Manager for Healthcare Solutions at AT&T and special host Fred Goldstein of Pop Health Week. The three discuss MobileSmith Health’s partnership with AT&T, the pressing need for interoperability in healthcare, the impact that mobile technology can have on patient adherence through perioperative procedures, AT&T’s role in transitioning in healthcare in a digital world and more.
News and Noted
DirectTrust Announces Draft of Industry-First Trusted Instant Messaging Standard Now Available for Testing
DirectTrust (@DirectTrustorg) announced the draft of its Trusted Instant Messaging+ (TIM+) standard is now available for testing. TIM+ is the industry-first standard to enable real-time healthcare communication that incorporates trust network concepts to ensure secure transmissions between known, trusted entities within and across enterprises. DirectTrust is a non-profit healthcare industry alliance created to support secure, identity-verified electronic exchanges of protected health information (PHI) between provider organizations, and between providers and patients, for the purpose of improved coordination of care.
CareCom Joins Lyniate’s Co-Creation Lab to Address Interoperability
Lyniate (@lyniate), a healthcare data interoperability company, announced a partnership with CareCom (@HealthTerm), a provider of terminology services management, to drive interoperability innovation. The two companies are collaborating in Lyniate’s Co-Creation Lab, a design environment that facilitates the advancement of cutting-edge health IT. The initial Co-Creation Lab project focuses on the development of a tailored data-normalization solution for shared customer Manifest MedEx, California’s largest nonprofit health data network, and will be scalable, adaptable, and easily replicated for other healthcare organizations looking for customized integration support for health information exchange (HIE).
Global Healthcare Interoperability Market to Witness Nearly Two-fold Growth by 2024
Frost & Sullivan’s (@Frost_Sullivan) recent analysis, Global Healthcare Interoperability Market, Forecast to 2024, contends that interoperability has become a critical consideration for all health IT (HIT) applications. Countries where HIT interoperability standards are equally important and regulated are projected to drive the market, registering near-double-digit growth. The buoyant market for global healthcare interoperability is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 13.8%, reaching $7.96 billion by 2024 from $4.17 billion in 2019.
SS&C and Edifecs Enable Interoperability Solution for Healthcare
SS&C Technologies Holdings, Inc. (@SSCTechnologies) announced that it has partnered with Edifecs (@edifecs), a global health information technology solutions company. SS&C will offer Edifecs’ leading interoperability application as a comprehensive solution using Business Process as a Service (BPaaS). The solution is offered to small-midsized health plans to address new Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) regulations.
EHNAC Releases a New Accreditation Criteria Version for Public Review through September 4
The Electronic Healthcare Network Accreditation Commission (EHNAC) (@EHNAC), a non-profit standards development organization and accrediting body for organizations that electronically exchange healthcare data, announced that it has posted a new version of program criteria for public review. The open process for adopting criteria commenced on July 15 and will end on September 4.
HASA HIE Joins eHealth Exchange Through Use of RosettaHealth Platform
Healthcare Access San Antonio (HASA) @HASA_TX), the non-profit, community HIE for North, South and West Texas, recently announced that it has joined eHealth Exchange (@eHealthExchange), the oldest and largest nationwide health information network connecting the public and private sectors.
Hyland Healthcare Partners with Life Image to Optimize Data and Imaging Access between Providers and Patients
Hyland Healthcare (@Hyland), a provider of connected healthcare enterprise imaging and content services, has partnered with Life Image (@lifeimageinc), the world’s largest medical evidence network providing access to points of care and curated clinical and imaging data. The partnership will improve data and imaging access between healthcare providers and their patients.
PATIENT ID NOW
Patient ID Now is a coalition of healthcare organizations representing a wide range of healthcare stakeholders committed to advancing through legislation and regulations a nationwide strategy to address patient identification. Read more about the coalition.
- Patient Matching: An Essential Tool in the Era of COVID-19
Free Recording
The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of ensuring patients are accurately matched to their medical records, yet the problem of patient misidentification persists, endangering patient safety, and the public health response. Listen to the newly formed Patient ID Now Coalition during a virtual hill briefing with health leaders on July 7. They dive into the implications of patient matching and identification during the pandemic.
Patient ID Now Coalition Pleased Congress is Addressing Patient Misidentification
Patient ID Now, a coalition of leading healthcare organizations, including the American College of Surgeons, the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA), the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME), Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS), Intermountain Healthcare and Premier Healthcare Alliance, is pleased that the U.S. House of Representatives voted to remove the longstanding ban in its Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies appropriations bill that stifles innovation around patient identification.
To Read or Watch
The Benefits of Interoperability
From P3 Practice Marketing (@p3practicemktg) – Interoperability has been a huge discussion not just in orthopedics, but healthcare as a whole. There are a lot of potential benefits to sharing healthcare data for both patients and providers, but getting there has been a challenge. Paige Goodhew, a product marketer for Redox, was a guest on Paradigm Shift of Healthcare. Redox is one of the solutions on the market for facilitating interoperability between different EHR and health information exchange systems. She explained the benefits of interoperability and why more patients are seeking out these technologies. Read more or watch below.
Events
2020 SHIEC Conference NOW VIRTUAL
August 16-19, 2020
San Antonio Marriott Rivercenter, San Antonio TX
Register for this event.
Make your plans to come and network with more than 70 HIEs and more than 65 SB&T Members along with industry leaders, government officials and more at the 6th annual SHIEC Conference being held at the San Antonio Marriott Rivercenter in San Antonio, TX.
The Strategic Health Information Exchange Collaborative
SHIEC (@SHIEClive) is the National Trade Association for Health Information Exchange Organizations. It is routine for important data about patients’ ongoing care to reside in multiple unconnected organizations. SHIEC member HIEs use information technology and trusted relationships in their service areas to enable secure, authorized exchange of patient information among disparate providers. By providing enhanced access to all available and relevant patient data SHIEC HIE members aim to improve the quality, coordination, and cost-effectiveness of health care provided in their communities. Read their news feed.
The Sequoia Project
The Sequoia Project (@SequoiaProject) was chartered to advance the implementation of secure, interoperable nationwide health information exchange. The ONC transitioned management of its eHealth Exchange to The Sequoia Project for maintenance. Since 2012, the Exchange has grown to become the largest health information exchange network in the country.
The CommonWell
CommonWell Health Alliance (@CommonWell) is devoted to the simple vision that health data should be available to individuals and providers regardless of where care occurs. Additionally, provider access to this data must be built-in health IT at a reasonable cost for use by a broad range of health care providers and the people they serve.
“With this platform in place, providers can now access a patient’s full medical history on a single EHR interface, rather than retrieving the veteran’s medical history on outside websites.” @InterSystems #InteropDoneRight #Interoperability https://t.co/ZlvlVPMq9l
— CommonWell (@CommonWell) July 13, 2020
Slow COVID-19: CommonWell Member Resources & Initiatives
Since inception, CommonWell members have been innovators and game changers in the health IT space. Today is no different. In this time of uncertainty and stress to both our health system and our personal wellbeing, it is not surprising that their members once again are stepping up to the challenge to solve some of our world’s biggest challenges. Through their website, they will continue to share and update what their members are doing in the fight to slow COVID-19, provide necessary care coordination resources, and ultimately, help save lives.
Resources
Why Patient Identity Management Tools are Critical for COVID-19 Care and Disease Surveillance
Is your organization struggling to achieve an integrated data environment amid COVID-19? Does fragmented patient information slow down your response efforts? Effective case management and reporting requires ongoing support and creative solutions for healthcare’s most fundamental problems—including oft-overlooked patient identity matching and health information exchange.
Download this eBook by NextGate to learn how to:
- Bridge the infrastructure gaps that impact COVID-19 responses
- Overcome demographic data challenges needed create a longitudinal
Consensus: The Chase for Interoperability
In its continued campaign to bring about data interoperability across the healthcare industry by 2024, the HHS’s Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) jointly released a set of new rules in 2019 to further promote the seamless exchange of protected health information (PHI). Despite increasing attempts to facilitate interoperability through regulations, the challenges lie elsewhere in creating seamless data exchange among a patient’s physician, hospital, labs, pharmacy, and others along the continuum of care.
Download this paper by eFax Corporate to learn more about the fastest, most cost-effective way for your organization to access and share patient data through one interoperable platform.
eHealth Initiative Resource Center
Interoperability Files – Check out the new white paper resource in the eHealth Initiative’s (@eHealthDC) Resource Center: FHIR FAQs
ONC Interoperability Pledge
Companies that provide 90 percent of electronic health records used by hospitals nationwide as well as the top five largest health care systems in the country have agreed to implement three core commitments: Consumer Access, No Blocking/Ensuring Transparency, and Standards. The ONC (@ONC_HealthIT) wants vendors to sign a pledge. Is your vendor pledging? Find out who is on the list.