Interoperability

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.

Janne Pitkänen, CEO of Finnish-based Adusso Ltd., says we must consider cross-border interoperability between healthcare systems, which would also enable benchmarking – especially in the U.S. and the Nordics.

FHIR is key to interoperability and better data access, says FHIR product director for HL7 International Grahame Grieve.

Steve Wretling, Chief Technology and Innovation Officer at HIMSS, says the interoperability discussion moves beyond technology to cover policy and process.

CMMI Director Adam Boehler details the impact of new interoperability rules from CMS and ONC. 

Connecting data between the public health department and hospitals in Shanghai has resulted in improved services for patients, says Tongyu Zhu, director at the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center.

Bettina Experton, MD, and CEO of Humetrix, talks about the history of CMS’s Blue Button project and how 53 million Americans covered by Medicare will now have access to their data through an API to ensure patient safety and interoperability.

Matt Menning, data products director at the American Medical Association, speaks about an initiative at the industry group to create a framework for physicians to capture and organize data to drive outcomes.

Jordi Piera Jimenez, chief information and R&D officer at Badalona Serveis Assistencials in Spain, says good systems and shared frameworks are important, but having government policy drive integration is key.

Dr. Lennart Jahnke, chief digital officer at Germany's University Medicine Mannheim, joins Siemens Healthineers to discuss ways to give patients easier access to their data.