HIMSS23: Interoperability requires modern, usable data

Left to right: Moderator Rob Havasy, Brandon Neiswender, Ryan Argentieri and Tim Pletcher discuss interoperability at HIMSS23 in Chicago on Monday.

Photo: Jeff Lagasse/Healthcare Finance News

CHICAGO – Interoperability is about more than just having standards. Being able to exchange electronic health information between entities and individuals is all well and good, but the data needs to be modern and usable. Indeed, "data modernization" is a buzz phrase in the world of healthcare technology, but what does the term actually mean?

A panel of experts took to the interoperability forum at the HIMSS23 global conference in Chicago to address that and other issues with data exchange in healthcare.

"In Michigan, we've been able to align incentives and drive performance around data," said Tim Pletcher, executive director of Michigan Health Information Network Shared Services. "It's more than sharing data, it's about performance and high-quality, usable data. We haven't talked about the usability of data much, but the question, especially when you have quality data, is how to use it. Is this data usable that we're getting? What do folks need to do back at the source to change the business process to put together consistent, reliable data?"

Ryan Argentieri, deputy director, office of technology at the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, said her thoughts turn to ways in which ONC can support its federal partners, who require the data to come into their system on a way that conforms to what everyone has agreed to in the standards-based model. 

"It's about making that work, connecting that back to the use cases that need to be solved," she said. "We need to create a seamless, end-to-end workflow that meets the providers where they are."

Brandon Neiswender, vice president and chief strategy officer at CRISP Shared Services, noted that when it comes to data, completeness and quality are two different things. 

"You can have a lot of connectivity, but you need the data," he said. "How do we make connectivity ubiquitous? We're moving to a time when we exchange information like everyone else in the world. There's pluses and minuses to that. There's an initial joy of removing administrative burden, but what you have is a whole other burden. Who's going to drive the development of those use cases?"

Neiswender said the use cases are going to be clinical and payer groups who are asking what they need to do. Hospital EHRs and payer systems can send lots of data back and forth in a silo, but the different types of data sets need to be integrated. A use case might be a cardiologist who needs X, Y and Z, and needs to know how to integrate that information into an EHR system.

"EHR systems are amazing," he said, "but I can write to a chart, and then expect the physicians to use the data that might have been collected at scale. We don't have the simple guidelines that say, 'This is how it works everywhere.'"

Argentieri said healthcare is sitting in the middle of a multitude of market forces and dynamics, some of which were building for a long time in terms of a capabilities perspective. There's a need, she said, for data modernization for patients, for providers and for payers – for everyone in the ecosystem. 

There's also constant disruption that's taking place, which Argentieri described as necessary.

"When we come here today and we talk about HIE, if you just break it down to what it is, it's a number of components – everyone agrees to certain norms and makes a commitment to each other when it comes to that product. We need to start mimicking that at scale across the country."

One of the biggest changes Neiswender has seen in recent years is shifting data from an asset to a utility. That, he said, could help solve some of the health equity challenges that exist.

"It's not just about funding and how do we keep our HDU alive," he said. "One of the most sustainable, usable things for healthcare is thinking, 'Why are we here, and how do we make this usable for patients, providers and payers?'"
 

Twitter: @JELagasse
Email the writer: Jeff.Lagasse@himssmedia.com