eHealth Initiative (eHI) www.ehidc.org recently announced that leaders from across the healthcare sector are going to working together to resolve some of the most difficult challenges facing the industry. Some of these challenges include interoperability, adoption of value-based care, access to data, and patient privacy.
As part of eHI’s 2020 Roadmap Project www.ehidc.or/2020-roadmap, United Healthcare, AMA, Mayo Clinic, Siemens, Accenture, Availity, Booz Allen, Healthcore, MGMA, PwC, Siemens, Texas Health Resources, and Cerner along with the federal government are working together to drive a private sector solution to address the issues.
eHI’s CEO, Jennifer Covich Bordenick reports interoperability is the top priority. “We all recognize that the federal government has a role to play, but it is now time for the private sector to step forward and lead the effort. In 2015, we will begin pulling all the pieces together and share those pieces with the federal government to begin to solve these issues and improve care.”
eHi and partners are recommending several actions:
- Measure and track current and future interoperability levels
- Work with the federal agencies to ensure that requirements support interoperability
- Help identify best practices for payers, providers, and consumer organizations, when they use ehealth tools, including telemedicine, mhealth, and consumer apps
- Coordinate with trade associations and professional societies to develop a toolkit with resources to help clinicians engage with patients
- Work with federal agencies to identify minimum data requirements for facilitating population health management
- Work with vendors to harmonize consumer applications to increase adoption and patient engagement
- Provide recommendations to technology vendors to help develop interoperable tools and applications
- Create a private sector process for standards development and testing
- Define nationwide interoperability in terms of the interoperability functions that should be universally available
The question asked is how does eHI’s 2020 Roadmap relate to the federal government’s interoperability roadmap? The Office of the National Coordinator for HIT is in the process of developing a one-year interoperability roadmap with direction for the federal agencies. It is due to be released for public comment in January 2015 after vetting from the Health IT Policy and Standards committees.
eHI however, is developing a much broader plan that addresses business and clinical motivators, interoperability and data access and use, and delves deep into the private sector transformation. eHI and ONC are working closely together to ensure that the work of both organizations is complementary.
Karen DeSalvo, MD, MPH, MSc, ONC National Coordinator and recently appointed Acting Assistant Secretary of Health for HHS said, “We look forward to reviewing the findings from eHI and working with eHI on a shared agenda for health IT.”