A Path Forward for Digital Health Data?
Harnessing Data for Improved Care Outcomes is Possible
In virtually every industry, there is a data deluge, however none more that the healthcare arena. From Electronic Health Records (EHRs) to personal fitness apps to home test kits, there’s no shortage of data – and data sources are only increasing.
Translating all of this data into true care outcomes is a different story. From information blocking challenges to care providers still focusing on patient volume, it has become difficult to share this patient information, and get it into the hands of providers in a timely manner.
Executives from the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA), as well as an executive in residence at Harvard Medical School, recently tackled this challenge in a deep-dive Harvard Business Review article, titled “How to Use Digital Health Data to Improve Outcomes.”
Specifically, here are some key suggestions from the article’s authors:
Reduce the cost of data collection and improve its timeliness.
Expand the range of usable data.
Leverage the broad adoption of electronic health records, mobile devices, and artificial intelligence to provide real-time feedback and guide care.
Establish a digital foundation for the ongoing production processes of gathering, analyzing, and reporting quality measures.
One of the key areas that caught our attention in the article is how providers use legacy IT systems that struggle to support true health data exchange. The authors suggest using a “combination of upgrades, application of standards, or workarounds in order to serve the new needs of digital measurement.”
Along these lines, the ONC recently issued a Data Brief about how widespread interoperability among office-based physicians is lacking due to a number of health data exchange barriers.
Another study came out this summer about how – while most health information exchange methods increase information availability – only single EHR vendor networks and national networks enable provider use of health information.
There are solutions for providing a path forward for digital health data, especially when it comes to interoperability.
RosettaHealth’s HealthBus solution, a SaaS-based data transport platform, makes it easier to share clinical information with any system in any community – with one connection per system. This opens up a world of possibility to hospitals, urgent and post-acute care systems, and ambulatory practices for use with any health information tools, not just EHRs approved components.
HealthBus can also easily integrate and be operational in days with a wide array of options including HL7 V2, REST, FHIR, XDR, XDS, XCA, NwHIN, Direct Secure Messaging, SMTP/POP, or via a portal.
RosettaHealth can assist with any health information challenges you might have, book a free consultation with one of our interoperability experts.