CommonWell: Addition of Labcorp Is Spurring FHIR Adoption
Labcorp, one of the two major national laboratory service companies along with Quest Diagnostics, has joined the CommonWell Health Alliance, which was designated as one of the Qualified Health Information Networks as part of the national Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement (TEFCA).
CommonWell said Labcorp’s addition to the network has become a key driver for the building and deploying of the FHIR data exchange at scale for testing among members. While CommonWell has utilized FHIR document exchange for several years, Labcorp’s partnership will advance FHIR interoperability and enhance the exchange of clinical laboratory data.
In a recent interview with Healthcare Innovation, Paul Wilder, executive director of CommonWell Health Alliance, explained why adding a lab organization such as Labcorp will help push FHIR adoption for the exchange of data elements over the document-centric approach that TEFCA is taking initially.
“Lab data not make sense to put in a document. You know, one lab result, my A1C, in a 200-page document doesn't make sense. I always say it's like going for a mortgage. They ask what my salary is, and I give them my tax forms. They just want line one,” he said. “We needed the use case. Everybody who was around the table for TEFCA, all the QHINs, were supportive of getting to FHIR, but not breaking what we have right now. But we know that's where we actually want to go, and this is going to make us go there faster.”
Labcorp is currently in the early stages of the implementation process and aims to become a fully operational service adopter by mid-2025.
“Joining the CommonWell Health Alliance Network will allow Labcorp to provide personalized health care insights at the point of care, representing a significant step in our mission to improve health and improve lives,” said Shamyla Lando, senior vice president and chief technology officer at Labcorp, in a statement. “By improving care coordination and advancing value-based care, we strive to create a more equitable healthcare system where every patient receives high-quality, personalized care.”
The CommonWell network enables the federated exchange of patient information across more than 36,000 provider sites, representing 238 million individuals on its nationwide network. To date, it has facilitated the exchange of more than 7.7 billion healthcare records.
