• November 9, 2022
• By admin

Interoperability and Data Sharing Among Healthcare Entities

Data is everything in today’s modern healthcare. Data is being collected on a massive scale, from health-focused smartphone apps to the electronic health records (EHRs) that doctors and hospitals manage, and it could provide invaluable insights into individual and population-wide behaviour and health trends that could transform how healthcare providers operate and deliver care.

If people in the United States are willing to share more of their health information with providers, it could tip the scales in favour of data sharing in healthcare. Healthcare providers, along with standards-developing organisations, payers, and relevant government agencies, could move the needle on interoperability in healthcare by facilitating data collection and EHR sharing for improved performance, care coordination, and patient outcomes with better access to more medical data.

What patients are willing to share their healthcare data?

It turns out that people are more open to data sharing in healthcare than you might think. Furthermore, two-thirds of adults want clinicians to share some health information that is not currently required by federal data sharing policies.

According to a national survey conducted by the Strategic Health Information Exchange Collaborative (SHIEC) in 2019, 92% of the U.S. population is covered by a health information exchange (HIE), which is a larger database that allows participating healthcare providers to share and access EHR.

The US Core Data for Interoperability (USCDI), the standardised set of health data in HIEs, currently requires the following data classes to be shared across EHRs:

• Allergies and intolerances
• Immunizations
• Medications
• Care team
• Assessment/treatment plans
• Clinical notes
• Procedures
• Smoking status
• Demographics
• Vitals
• Lab results
• Provenance (date, provider)
• Health problems, concerns, and goals
• Implantable device Ids

By sharing more information, such as radiology scans and reports, doctors may be able to reduce the amount of redundant testing performed, saving both time and money for patients and providers. Furthermore, sharing information such as behavioural and mental health, substance use, and social determinants of health may provide doctors with a more comprehensive understanding of a patient and the health issues they face.

To ensure data security, HIPAA compliance is required:

Personal information, such as medical history and health data, raises more concerns about privacy than other types of user data. While the Pew survey found that many Americans want their providers to share more information, there were concerns about privacy and patient access to medical records. To ensure the security and privacy of that information, patient mobile apps or portals from healthcare providers that allow people to access their EHR must be HIPAA-compliant.

However, when it comes to health apps that allow people to download their EHR from multiple providers into a single location, data security may be a bigger concern. Personal data downloaded to these apps is not protected by HIPAA or other federal privacy laws, which concerned 62% of Pew survey respondents.

Working to improve interoperability:

According to the Pew survey, there is a demand for data sharing with providers and patients among American consumers. With that in mind, the next step is to create a roadmap to address the growing demand for increased access to health data and ensure that it can be used to improve interoperability among healthcare providers.

The Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement (TEFCA) will be completed in 2022, according to the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC). The TEFCA, which is a component of the 21st Century Cures Act, aims to establish guidelines for interoperability standards for qualified health information networks (QHINs) across the United States.

The goal is to develop data sharing standards and a framework for QHINs to follow in order to improve security and streamline data sharing between EHRs and avoid information blocking, whether intentional or unintentional.

More patient data could provide critical insights into population health management and ways for providers to improve care coordination and health outcomes as patients move through a healthcare system. The value of big data in healthcare stems from the ability to identify population-wide health patterns, which can assist providers and governments in better addressing system disparities and determining where funding could best serve communities.