Interoperability

New Jersey state officials Shereef Elnahal and Nancy Pinkin discuss how prescription drug monitoring programs are forcing providers to get used to putting data into a state system and getting information out to inform care decisions.

HIMSS Insights speaks to Mikel Hernaez, director of computational genomics at the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology at the University of Illinois.

The technology can be used to foster interoperability but there are some key questions that need to be answered first, including ones about privacy and security, says Pew's HIT project director Ben Moscovitch.

Experts from across health IT, including members of the HL7 board and advisory council, say the new standard can do big things for data exchange, but it's not a cure-all.

Jörg Aumüller, head of digitalizing healthcare marketing at Siemens Healthineers, says putting AI to use in the clinical setting requires curated data, supercomputing infrastructure and the ability to model algorithms on neural networks.

We talk about national interoperability when we need to be focused on common standards across states, says Brian Mack, manager of marketing and communications at Great Lakes Health Connect.

Central Georgia Health Network VP Jodi Ingram and CIO Gabriel Orthous say getting providers and payers to trust each other means speaking both of their languages.

Patient-generated data from apps, devices and digital therapeutics will make personal health dashboards that manage wellness possible, says HIMSS Personal Connected Health Alliance Director of Thought Advisory John Sharp. 

The HIMSS Insights eBook on connected care and interoperability looked at the impact and potential of the Patient Unified Lookup System for Emergencies (PULSE).

A quick look back at the competing specs for clinical coding and data exchange gives a glimpse of the some of the challenges still ongoing today.