Several hospital associations recently came together to identify six pathways to interoperability that would help fill the need for a national system that supports the sharing and glitch-free transmission of a patient’s complete medical history and data among care providers. Ultimately, stakeholders need to ramp up efforts to overcome any remaining technical and/or regulatory barriers that stand in the way of true interoperability of patient records, HIMSS said in a recent statement.
Six Pathways to Interoperability:
- Security and Privacy. Stakeholders must be able to trust that shared data is accurate, secure, and used in accordance with best practices and patient expectations. Manufacturers must embed security and privacy requirements into every layer of the infrastructure.
- Efficient, Usable Solutions. Data must be available where and when it is needed, and in a useful format. Systems supporting data exchange also must support accurate patient matching.
- Cost Effective, Enhanced Infrastructure. The infrastructure to connect information sharing networks must be secure, cost-effective, accessible and updated over time. It will require consistent use of standards, semantics and a common set of “rules of the road” for exchange.
- Standards that Work. Connected systems require improved — as well as new — standards used consistently to minimize proprietary solutions and gatekeeping.
- Connecting Beyond Electronic Health Records. To improve health and care, interoperable systems must expand the reach of information sharing to support population health, address social determinants of health and facilitate remote monitoring and patient-generated data.
- Shared Best Practices. Information sharing is happening in pockets but needs to be expanded. All stakeholders should share best practices to build on what works.