Challenges of interoperability in healthcare remains complex than ever

Is interoperability in healthcare a distant dream?

A startling 1 of every 7 primary care visit is affected by incomplete medical information. For years on end, the healthcare industry has been struggling to connect a fractured system. To, prevent missing information and miscommunication, from impacting the lives of patients.

Despite sweeping healthcare reforms, a secure system that facilitates free flow of information across the healthcare continuum is still light years away.

We have the systems in place, we have the policies in place, but why is interoperability so near yet so far away? Vendor wars, unclear regulations and the huge volume of data most medical practices grapple with, limit and cripple any attempt made at data sharing.

The first big blank wall…

Money. According to a survey by eHealth initiative, around 74% of respondents cited the financial cost of building interfaces, as the biggest roadblock in achieving interoperability. The cost of building an interface and the technical difficulty in building one, act as major deterrents. Healthcare organizations need to fight against closed, insular and monolithic electronic health record systems. Interoperability should not be treated as an expensive, add-on option. It should form the foundation on which the entire system is built.

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The standards stalemate!

A lot of dust has been raised about the technical and financial difficulties of achieving interoperability between IT systems. The electronic data exchange between 2 systems is just the first step towards interoperability. One key issue that is of equal importance, is, semantics. Every system speaks its own language, and without standardization of semantics, sharing information can be a huge challenge.

Most IT systems are not semantically interoperable and as physicians move towards population health management, being semantically interoperable is vital. The RxNorm is a widely accepted national standard. Healthcare systems need to opt for IT solutions that are in step with accepted semantic standards.

Imprisoned by a single system!

Most hospitals, after investing heavily in legacy systems, tend to talk ancillary services and medical practices into adopting the same technology. This has an adverse effect on cross-vendor operability. Most big hospital networks swim towards the same technology platforms to recoup costs. This further strengthens the hold of monopolistic EHRs that do little or nothing to improve interoperability.

Working in tandem…    

Care providers need to demand IT systems that collaborate, communicate and deliver solutions that can light the way for a truly interconnected healthcare industry. Healthcare technology vendors should create and deploy systems that aid and don’t hamper interoperability.

Are small tech tools a huge relief?

At the other end of the spectrum, there are several data tracking applications and SaaS platforms that have made, a headway, into the, healthcare space. The big move towards big systems, have opened a small space for small applications and softwares. They are user friendly and not overloaded with extraneous data that contribute little towards business intelligence or data analysis. In some small way they can be the harbingers of change, and achieve what has been an unrealized dream so far, right information at the right time.