The evolution of healthcare interoperability and clinical data sharing remains one of the most dynamic areas of healthcare. Key initiatives like TEFCA and QHIN designations aim to enable nationwide data exchange, while obstacles and challenges such privacy concerns, system barriers, lack of standards, industry resistance, and managing the incoming data deluge remain.
On this episode of Tell Me Where IT Hurts, Dr. Jay Anders welcomes Didi Davis, vice president of Informatics, Conformance, and Interoperability for The Sequoia Project, for an insider’s look at the current interoperability landscape across standards, systems, and stakeholders.
As a leader guiding critical coordinating efforts today around TEFCA’s policy framework, she lends an informed perspective into the technical and social hurdles still ahead in achieving the ultimate goals for interoperability –– facilitating complete patient history at the point of care and leveraging data for use cases like population health and research.
Listen as Dr. Anders and Didi delve into a lively discussion of the current state and future direction of healthcare interoperability, including:
- Interoperability’s evolution from fax machines and paper records to electronic data exchange
- Importance of interoperability in providing a more complete medical history
- Overview of Didi Davis’ career history in health IT and interoperability
- The role of regulation like 21st Century Cures Act in advancing interoperability frameworks
- Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement (TEFCA) led by The Sequoia Project
- Designation of Qualified Health Information Networks (QHINs) to enable nationwide interoperability
- Technical aspects of interoperability – standards like FHIR, and EHR integration
- Ensuring patient privacy and consent for data sharing across QHINs
- Overcoming industry resistance and inertia to meaningful data exchange
- Managing and improving usability of large volumes of patient data from disparate sources
- The need for ongoing innovation in areas like research data exchange
- Efforts by The Sequoia Project around data quality and usability guidance to facilitate interoperability
- “If you had a magic wand and could change anything in healthcare IT today, what would it be?”
Show Links
TEFCA on HealthIT.gov
Dr. Jay Anders on LinkedIn
“Tell Me Where IT Hurts” on Healthcare NOW Radio
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