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Organization says 5 will build on FHIR 4 with more normative content, support for apps that use multiple versions of the spec and other advancements.

The specialty pavilion is the destination for leading-edge exhibition, education and networking on the show floor.

"Voice user interfaces are an essential step to humanizing the EHR," says Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s Dr. Yaa Kumah-Crystal, who will be speaking at HIMSS19.

Health information exchanges can help providers and public health departments overcome common obstacles. 

Queensland Ambulance Service (QAS) has rolled out a digital system that aims to give paramedics greater access to a patient’s vital medical information in an emergency. The SafeMate emergency medical information program is under trial for Medibank customers with chronic illnesses that are living in Queensland. Patients must be enrolled under Medibank’s CareComplete chronic disease management service. The SafeMate program houses a patient’s medical and personal information that they enter online. QAS personnel can then access this data by scanning a QR code on a patient's SafeMate card using iPads. “This is crucial information that a patient wants the paramedic to know in a medical emergency,” Queensland Government Minister for Ambulance Services Steven Miles said. “Paramedics will use their operational iPads to tap the patient’s SafeMate card or device, and the medical information will appear on the screen. It eliminates the time it would normally take a paramedic to ask the patient a range of questions in order to obtain their medical history and other pertinent details.” This gives paramedics access to important information, such as details on allergies and medical history, letting them identify best courses of treatment earlier and improving patient outcomes. It also aims to reduce paramedic and patient stress, time-consuming hospital visits and costs in the health system, in addition to improving ambulance efficiencies. Prior to December 1 last year, paramedics were unable to access these records as the organisation was not in the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) regulated health profession registry.   The digital system is a testament to Queensland’s ongoing digitisation journey, with the launch of a digital hospital program to improve the state’s healthcare and patient outcomes.  In December last year, through findings from a report tabled by the Queensland Audit Office (QAO), Miles outlined the benefits of the digital hospital program in Queensland. He said that as a result of the digital hospital program, Queenslanders face improved health service delivery and patient outcomes, including a reduction in unplanned readmission rates, faster access of clinical information by medical staff and more legible patient records. “Digital hospitals are making Queensland hospitals safer than ever before. Doctors and nurses have told me when I’ve visited hospitals that the digital system helps them do their jobs and helps patients,” Miles said. Ambulance Victoria has also ramped up its digitisation strategy, with the organisation most recently announcing that it will soon deploy a predictive analytics platform for its paramedics to access real-time information, enhancing and accelerating its decision making as the need for emergency services grows. This article first appeared on Healthcare IT News Australia.

The whole point of electronic health records is to facilitate the sharing of patient data, but that is still difficult, not just because interoperability hasn't been fully achieved, but also because matching patient records is still not easy to achieve – putting patients at risk for incorrect care and also posing privacy concerns, according to a new report by the Government Accountability Office. The report, titled, "Approaches and Challenges to Electronically Matching Patients' Records across Providers," says there two ways that records are failed to be matched accurately. These include: Records for different patients are mistakenly matched. When this happens, health, safety and privacy are in jeopardy. A provider may use a diagnosis or medication information for the wrong patient. Or, if the wrong patient's medical information is added to another patient's record, the first patient's privacy has been breached. Records for the same patient are not matched. When medical records for the same patient are not matched, providers don't have all the information they need to provide proper care. For the study, GAO interviewed representatives from physician practices and hospitals to find out how they match patient records. Some of them told GAO they have worked to improve the consistency with which they format demographic data in their electronic health records. Multiple stakeholders said no single effort would solve the challenge of patient record matching. Stakeholders suggested these general ways the healthcare community could improve how patient records are matched: implement common standards for recording demographic data; share best practices and other resources; and   develop a public-private collaboration to improve matching. When it comes to the role the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) should play, most interviewed for the survey weren't sure. However, some suggested that ONC could require demographic data standards for health IT certification, while others said the agency should push voluntary adoption of the standards. WHY IT MATTERS Healthcare providers are increasingly sharing patients' health records electronically. When a patient's records are shared with another provider, it is important to accurately match them to the correct patient. GAO and others have reported that accurately matching patient health records is a barrier to health information exchange. GAO cites a 2014 study found that as few as 50 percent of records are accurately matched when organizations exchange information. In the American Hospital Association's 2017 survey, 45 percent of large hospitals reported that difficulties in accurately identifying patients across health IT systems limited health information exchange. THE LARGER TREND GAO points out how important industry standards are for entering names and identifying data into an EHR, and recommends ONC's Interoperability Standards Advisory Reference as a way to ensure accurate matching. The latest version was just released Jan. 15, and was based on 74 comment letters, including nearly 400 individual recommendations for revisions. A standards-based health ecosystem is also critical, and this year's HIMSS Global Conference and Exhibition's Interoperability Showcase next month Orlando  will feature 82 organizations demonstrating 121 health IT systems across 16 different use-cases. The showcase is designed to get at the heart of what the true value of interoperability really is, said Christel Anderson, senior director, interoperability initiatives, at HIMSS. Diana Manos is a Washington, D.C.-area freelance writer specializing in healthcare, wellness and technology.  Twitter: @Diana_Manos Email the writer: dnewsprovider@gmail.com  Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS Media publication.   

This year the showcase will feature 82 organizations demonstrating 121 health IT systems across 16 different use-cases.