8 key points to bear in mind to improve the interoperability of the healthcare systems

More than 1,700 professionals met in Washington DC in the past February as part of the Healthcare Innovation Day, in order to discuss how interoperability contributes to saving resources, to improving efficiency and reducing errors. Amongst many of the ideas on the table was particularly that “it is necessary to consider interoperability, especially for patients”. Interoperability specifically accelerates innovation and frees hospitals ICT resources so that doctors can really focus on what is important: achieving improvement in citizen’s health. 

As soon as there is a lack of interoperability, patients suffer from problems caused by apparatuses which are not mutually compatible, healthcare professionals who give more attention to the technology than to the patient and decisions taken without the necessary critical information, which is often isolated and cannot be recovered from the system that has produced it.

What is interoperability? 

Interoperability is the capacity of one or more systems or elements to exchange information and to use this shared information. More simply, the system should speak the same language; this is how the term was defined in Washington last February. 

Sometimes doctors have to base their decisions on outdated or incomplete information. Today still, many innovative technological devices do not have the capacity to share data. This means that the patients and the doctors attending them do not have access to the information that could be vital. It is thanks to the implementation of standards-based technology that it is possible to achieve interoperability between systems, by eliminating customised interfaces and therefore reducing the associated costs, risks and times. 

If healthcare providers could have entirely interoperable systems, there would be fewer errors and negative consequences. Apart from achieving better clinical results, interoperability is able to reduce wastage and would improve the efficiency of healthcare systems. According to estimates of the West Health Institute, each year between 30,000 and 40,000 million dollars could be saved by implementing standards-based ICTs which could achieve interoperability between systems.

However, the high cost and complexity of integrating apparatuses, the unawareness of the healthcare managers of the savings and improvements in safety which interoperability would bring, and the lack of incentives are the principal barriers on working towards an interoperable system.

Shared responsibility for all players 

At the meeting in Washington DC, the experts agreed that without interoperability, the health system in the United States would be lame, when it should already be fully adapted and allowing data to circulate on the motorways of information. Eight key actions were proposed for starting up an interoperable healthcare system in United States:

1. To recognise that the lack of interoperability is a crisis and to work for change. Public-private collaboration must be promoted in order to resolve this crisis of security, efficiency and healthcare resources and to create a national awareness on the question.

2. To focus the problem in the right way: it is not only necessary to collect data from patients, but also to find a way to share them. There are many devices capable of producing a huge amount of data, but entirely disconnected from the rest.

3. To accelerate the complete adoption of standards that are open and not ambiguous. Although it is true that today there are standards, many are unspecific or incomplete and are therefore an obstacle on the expansion of the adoption of technology. A wager on free solutions might be a solution.

4. To achieve incentives and create demand. A regulatory effort is needed with the involvement of hospitals, the healthcare systems and the managers.

5. To guarantee the validity, privacy and security of data, which must be private in order to protect patients.

6. To reduce the technical complexities of introducing interoperability for hospitals, healthcare systems and healthcare professionals. Wherever possible, interoperability initiatives must aim to reduce complexity.

7. To turn gross data into information ready to be used by doctors and patients. Advanced analytical tools will be necessary.

8. To guarantee secure access to data for patients and also for researchers. Patients are entitled to access their health data, but professionals and those involved in research should also have access to this information in order to facilitate the job of producing better treatments, while always respecting patients’ privacy. 
 

Bibliographic reference

Igniting an interoperable healthcare system. The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology – US Government and West Health Institute, February 2014 [access: 13 May 2014]. Available at: http://www.westhealth.org/…