Interoperability to take digital platforms to the next level

For the first time in history, the vast majority of healthcare organizations, especially in the U.S., are on an electronic health record (EHR). Healthcare must take its all-digital platform to integrate data from many different EHRs into an open, community patient record.

Foundation for consumer-driven healthcare

We have an extensive amount of healthcare data, with most of it in a digital format. What’s next? We have to put it to work. We must make it useful to people by combining disparate streams of information into a complete community longitudinal patient record.

Only with complete, integrated patient records can clinicians get a total picture of their patients’ stories. Because providers need to see what’s happening when the patient is not in front of them, they need that connected record to track patient wellness and see how their health is progressing. It’s imperative to providing well-informed, community based, individually coordinated comprehensive care.

As we resolve complex interoperability issues, healthcare will be better-connected to consumers, and enable them to be more active participants in their own care. Consumers are more financially responsible for their care than ever before. They will continue to demand more access to—and control over—their own healthcare information. Their expectations will fuel efforts for more seamless, mobile exchange of data among providers.

Beyond the obvious benefits for consumers, interoperability will deliver benefits to organizations who are also striving to understand all the data coming out of these complex health eco systems. To make sense of all this information—not just clinically, but operationally—interoperable systems will help achieve better outcomes and lower costs. For example, health systems that have newly acquired or merged with other entities need to repurpose their networks for quality and financial synergies.

Healthcare organizations must look beyond the four walls of their hospitals and clinics, and be more tightly aligned with post-acute facilities, including behavioral health, mental health, substance abuse, long-term care and home health. These areas are very important for managing the health of the whole patient. Bringing that data together with the appropriate authorization and security measures in place is instrumental to having a total view of patients as they present for care.

Open: APIs have an important role to play

Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), or sets of tools and specifications that enable software to interact, are taking center stage in the interoperability conversation. APIs make data more mobile in a simple and cost-effective way. They will help enable healthcare consumers to have more control over their information. Patients will be more mobile, as they can take their data with them to other providers. APIs should be Open and available to connect solutions, no matter which vendor created them or wants to connect.

At Allscripts, for example, we invite third-party developers to build solutions on top of our EHRs using our Open, intelligent APIs. Today, we have more than 6,600 registered developers using our APIs and we’ve had 1,580 client activations with third-party API solutions. We’ve had more than 3 billion data shares since 2013 and passed the billion mark for data shares for the first time in a single year; 2017. That means real information is being exchanged and creating value for the healthcare system.

For more than 10 years, we’ve been promoting the value of API-based integration with open systems and connected communities of health. These numbers show that we’re not just talking about it; we’re creating an interoperable ecosystem where meaningful exchange is happening. APIs have a lot of momentum, and increasing numbers of vendors and providers are adopting them.

Momentum will usher in a new era of interoperability

Interoperability has been the goal for many years, and now we finally have a fully digital platform as our foundation. Health IT will never be a single-vendor industry, so it is vital to have systems that talk to one another. Interoperability enables innovation and collaboration to flourish, and enables healthcare to deliver better outcomes and lower costs.