Interoperability

Cat and dog owners know that pets that chase their tails will eventually catch them – but they won’t stay caught for long. Healthcare providers who manage the exchange of health information understand the feeling.

Most health IT professionals are probably more focused on implementing or maintaining systems than they are tracking larger healthcare trends, such as the pace at which hospitals and practices are being bought and sold. The fact is, however, that IT can be a significant factor in the decision-making of healthcare administrators.

CommonWell Health Alliance announced this week that Mobile, Ala.-based CPSI and Tucson, Ariz.-based Sunquest Information Systems are the two latest vendors to sign on to the interoperability organization.

2013 has been billed as the year of EHR dissatisfaction, with up to 23 percent of physician practices reporting they were trading in their current EHR system for a new brand altogether and, according to a new Black Book Rankings report, there were a handful of vendors that came out on top.

With more than $500 million in HITECH Act startup funding set to run out by the end of the year, too many health information exchanges "haven't figured out how to fund themselves."

Healthcare, which has always been based on the doctor-patient interaction, is nearing the end of Stage 1 meaningful use, and as the industry increases its reliance on electronic health records, it faces a new challenge. That conundrum, says Nick van Terheyden, MD, and CMIO at Nuance Communications, is how to reconcile the need for standardized structured data capture with the importance of narrative in patient-doctor interactions.

Whether Americans see Edward Snowden as a hero or a traitor, the ongoing story of his deliberate leak of classified security information has caused some to sit up and take stock of all matters related to information technology, data and privacy.

At the Government Health IT Conference and Exhibition in Washington this week, chief information officers from the Military Health System and the U.S. Navy offered candid discussion about the way they make their IT decisions -- most notably with regard to the EHR system DoD is looking to acquire.

There has been some buzz lately about how interoperability is a non-issue. I beg to differ. With increasing pressure from federal initiatives like Meaningful Use Stage 2, there is growing need for information exchange across the industry.

More than a third of physician practices plan to purchase, replace or upgrade ambulatory EHR systems, according to HIMSS Analytics' newest Ambulatory Electronic Health Record & Practice Management Study. Meanwhile, nearly half of physician groups say they'll join an HIE.