In the early days of Healthcare IT, clinical documentation was done on mainframe-connected terminals, and later on Windows-based clients running on individual PCs. About the only data that was shared from these platforms was to billing services. Competing systems were built on different platforms with different programming languages; all by humans who have different ideas on what these systems should focus on. As Healthcare IT has evolved, the number and scope of connected systems has exploded. Today’s hospitals typically have more than one hundred systems that need to communicate with each other, not to mention the ever-increasing number of devices within the Healthcare setting, and the addition of consumer based devices like Fitbits. This all means that Healthcare IT systems need to become more adept at exchanging data between lots of devices and other systems. This concept is called interoperability. So what is interoperability and why is it important in Healthcare? In order for two systems to be considered interoperable, they need to be able to exchange data and present it in a way that is useful to clinicians. Interoperability has been pushed forward by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC). In 2014, the ONC released a 10-year plan to achieve interoperability in the US by 2024. The goal is better utilization of clinical data, improved workflows, lower health costs, and improved patient wellness. The OCC has recognized the need to more quickly overcome the fragmentation of various Healthcare technologies. Levels Of Interoperability. The Healthcare Information and Management System Society (HIMSS) has come up with three levels to define what qualifies as interoperability: Foundational interoperability is the lowest level of operation, requiring data exchange from one system or device to another without an expectation that the data is interpreted. An example might be the use of a patient portal to send a PDF document that has patient history information. The recipient of the PDF document would need to open it and manually enter that data into an electronic medical record system. Structural interoperability is the next level of operation requires the data to follow some structure or format, that there is uniform movement of the data, and that the data is stored somewhere in the receiving system. The data also needs to be preserved in its original form. Examples of structural interoperability are HL7 interfaces and the transmission of patient data from connected devices like Fitbits. Patient portals can be configured to allow patients to upload data from these devices. Another example is data from devices in physicians offices- like blood pressure monitors and glucose readers. Semantic interoperability is the highest level of interoperability, requiring interpretation and use of the data to achieve outcomes such as improved patient care, improved patient safety, and the ability of clinicians to make decisions on that data. Examples of semantic interoperability are Health Information Exchanges and data collection methods for population health. Population health technology makes use of risk scores, which are calculations of many clinical data points to predict, for example how likely a patient is to be readmitted to a hospital in the near future. A clinical case manager can work from a report of risk scores to personally reach out to high risk patients with intervention activities. HL7 interfaces may qualify as either Structural or Semantic interoperable technologies, depending on how they are implemented. Where Is Interoperability. Headed?For the short and medium-term future, I think we can expect to see a lot more consumer driven healthcare, where patients expect more connectivity from EMRs to devices, apps, and platforms that are not part of the EMR platform. Also, we can expect to see Healthcare IT departments work to make better use of data from multiple sources. Devices, population health data, and clinical charting will all be used together with greater efficiency to (hopefully) impact patient outcomes. |
Author.Malik Rashid. Archives.Categories. |