Interoperability

Kari O'Rourke, president of Imagine Pediatrics, says providers can reduce ER visits and costs by wrapping care around the whole family, unifying fragmented records with technology and addressing child patients' social needs.

The expanded guidelines lay out strategies for presenting medication information in a standardized way across electronic health records and e-prescribing platforms.

Regina Wysocki, senior informatics program manager at Lone Star Communications, says centralizing health system data provides nurses with a "bigger picture" of operations so they can uncover trends that can improve care delivery.

Getting every image, anywhere, to anyone who has the right to the image, including physicians and patients through the personal health record, is a key goal, says Dr. David Kaelber, Cleveland MetroHealth's chief medical informatics officer.

While HIEs and TEFCA represent important interoperability advances, William Cavanaugh, Concord Technologies CEO, says health systems also need to access documents that contain important context for clinicians, rather than just data.

Tom Liddell, Harmony Healthcare IT CEO, says the company's AI-powered clinical registry automation tool is already delivering results for clients and will be featured in an upcoming HIMSS book on AI innovation.

According to Office Practicum's Dr. Rich Szabo and Chris Gibson, the company's EHR provides pediatricians with a complete view of patient data so they can more easily manage the immunization process at the point of care.

An API increases the identification of veteran patients in non-VA hospitals and with outreach for patient-specific targeted benefit information, says Matthew McCay, MultiCare Health System's veteran advocacy manager and Epic's Brett Barker.

While the change of administration means federal regulations and funding remain in flux, PointClickCare's Brian Drozdowicz believes healthcare vendors and organizations are making strides in improving interoperability.

Rebecca Coyle, executive director of the American Immunization Registry Association, says monitoring vaccine data lets states determine where more vaccines are needed when diseases spread through populations.