COVID-19 Pandemic Reinforces Need for National Health IT Infrastructure

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In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, the need for timely and accurate patient health data has never been greater. From treating patients to knowing how many individuals have tested positive to demographic information, there is a wide-range of use cases for reliable health data.

According to a new JAMA article, the U.S. needs a national health information technology infrastructure to meet these expanding needs – even as cities and states are embracing re-opening strategies.

The article also highlights how more than 95 percent of hospitals are currently utilizing EHRs, and the prevalence of both state and regional HIEs, is making the need for a nationwide data collection infrastructure even greater.

In addition, health data is only valuable when it is completely shareable. In early April, we published a RosettaHealth podcast with Doug Fridsma, former President and CEO of the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) and former Chief Science Officer at ONC; Tim Pletcher, Executive Director of MiHIN; and Buff Colchagoff, CEO of RosettaHealth, about this topic.

Specifically, these executives discussed how health IT infrastructure is playing a key role in helping to share data with front-line care workers at field hospitals and testing facilities – without needing to re-invent new processes, standards and solutions. Health data exchange will also remain incredibly important as telehealth continues to rise in prominence, and is driven by health IT infrastructure.

Feel free to listen to the full podcast below:

Further reinforcing the value of health data exchange, the Duke-Margolis Center for Health Policy recently convened multi-stakeholder working groups to identify feasible healthcare data interoperability recommendations during the COVID-19 pandemic.

To learn more about how RosettaHealth can assist with any health information challenges you might have, book a free consultation with one of our interoperability experts.


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