know where to look.
Information Officer of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Professor
Harvard Medical School, lays out some concrete ways in which interoperability is taking shape – in large volumes, to boot. While there plenty of barriers still to
surmount, the sweeping pronouncements about systems “not talking to each
other” and interoperability efforts needing a complete reboot simply do
not match reality.
The problem is often that specifics arelacking in the national discussion about patient data. We’ve
discussed on this
blog the ways in defining success for interoperability can be poorly defined –
lacking a connection to outcomes for patients and providers. But the same is
true of failure, when we talk about how a complete lack of progress is
projected onto the health IT field.
of Direct Protocol. Plenty of successful case studies are out there. As Dr.
Halamka describes it, Direct has provided “a foundation for health
information exchange across the country.” Both in state Health Information
Exchanges and more locally within provider networks of various sizes, Direct is
moving health data – both in service of current Meaningful Use goals and in
ways that can allow for broader interoperability in the future.
necessity of returning to specifics when dealing with Big Ideas like
interoperability. It’s easy to get frustrated with a national conversation that
can be shifting, directionless and sometimes wildly inaccurate.
We should first tee up the problem and see how a technology like Direct can make solid contact. If inability to access a central
hub of patient data is one way of framing the issue, then state health information exchange (HIE) success can be used as a yardstick. Combining disparate data from a patchwork of
health systems is a mandate for HIEs and the data snapshot Halamka shares on Massachusetts is a highly encouraging report card
for the use of Direct protocol in this process.
Progress in interoperability may be halting. But through numerous projects, we’ve witnessed firsthand the leaps our industry has taken.
Dynamic Health IT has worked in close partnership with MaxMD to facilitate the exchange of clinical documents across a variety of healthcare settings using Direct Protocol. With MaxMD as our HISP, we have brought Direct implementations to thousands of providers.
The capacity to use Direct protocol is required functionality for 2014 Edition certified EHR solutions. Like interoperability success stories, however, it may be hiding in plain sight. Many EHR implementations have untapped potential in Direct to ease the process of potentially challenging data exchanges like Transition of Care. If your software is 2014 Edition certified, it could be as simple as getting a conversation started about a tool that’s already under the hood.
