This week’s chat will focus on interop. Check out Micky Tripathi and John Halamka’s post: Enabling Nationwide Interoperability — they identify 5 key transactions that we should focus on at the national level. They admit that there are other interop functions that could have value in the market, but advise that those “are best left to individual networks to provide within their networks as their customers and stakeholders see fit and are willing to pay for and enable.” They caution against “letting the perfect be the enemy of the good” and add that “It’s important that we begin with achievable, practical steps and grow from there”. Micky and John have promised that we’ll hear a call to action from them throughout the week to move this agenda forward.
Discussion Details
Wednesday, March 2, 2016 at 9:30 AM PST
Q1: What are the most valuable use cases for interoperability in healthcare? What specific problem would they solve?
Another interesting post I came across this week questions the validity of the entire interoperability narrative — Michael Koriwchak, MD argues that The Manufactured Interoperability Crisis is Failing Docs. It’s a thought-provoking read, but if you’re short on time the main point is found in this excerpt:
The interoperability narrative pushed by EHR vendor CEOs, government and HIMSS is accepted neither by those of us who touch patients for a living nor by many who work in health IT. The concept of interoperability has been hijacked by those at the top of the HIT food chain to serve their needs, not the needs of patients and those who give them care.
Q2: If we had national interop today, how would patients and/or caregivers benefit? Which ones? How many of them?
Finally, I read an inspirational piece this week from CancerGeek titled Instead–>HIMSS16 And Healthcare. In it, he encourages “everyone going to HIMSS to ask yourself what would happen if I focused on that, instead of this…” With that in mind:
Q3: What could we be talking about at HIMSS16 (even if just for a minute) instead of interop, that would have an immediate and positive impact on patients, doctors or healthcare at large?
Join us on Wednesday, 3/2 for a special #HIMSS16 Edition of the Business of Healthcare Chat (#hcbiz). We’re running at a special time to line up with breaks at the big show: 9:30 PST; 12:30 EST and we’ll run for just 30 minutes. The whole industry will be watching this week — tell us what you think!
Recap