Just Get Connected Already

When my optometrist notices an odd lesion on one of my eyes, we agreed we should let my PCP know. The optometrist printed his report that I would bring to my next PCP exam, because otherwise my optometrist had no reliable way to transfer the data.

This is the burden still faced by three quarters of U.S. clinicians, as estimated by Paul L Wilder, Executive Director of the CommonWell Health Alliance. The alliance was a bold gesture made ten years ago by leading EHR vendors to demonstrate their commitment to data sharing. Many other health IT firms have joined CommonWell since then.

In the video interview below, Wilder and Liz Buckle, Director of Product, discuss CommonWell’s vision, achievements, and plans for the future.  Plus, Wilder shares what he was hearing about the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement (TEFCA) at the HIMSS 2023 annual conference and offers up a few takeaways.  Buckle also shares her experience at the Interop Showcase and details of the recent CommonWell FHIR Connectathon where CommonWell members leveraged FHIR to improve interoperability. FHIR, the API for automated data sharing, is mature and being adopted. This more recent standard makes trust automatable as well. To describe the current situation in healthcare, Wilder asked us to imagine if a retailer had to call your bank every time you made a credit card purchase.

Wilder also dove into his experience with HIEs and how connectivity is key to public health and in preparation for future pandemics or other emergencies.  Buckle shared her experience from working for a founding member of CommonWell to becoming a full time employee in her role as Director of Product.  She aptly pointed out the importance of ensuring women and other diverse voices are in these efforts for the simple reason that we are all consumers of healthcare. She also pointed out how encouraging it was to see an even split of men and women in a meeting with candidate QHINs and federal partners. Wilder added that it is usually the mothers who carry the burden of tracking and managing health journeys for their family. The mom is the one who knows how hard it is to access elusive data and how important data sharing is.

“Just get connected already,” says Wilder. In addition to connecting everybody, Wilder and Buckle imagine a future with more use cases beyond treatment, and more connectivity with public health agencies. Watch the video for the role of data sharing, what differentiates CommonWell in its pursuit of seamless interoperability, and how TEFCA will play a role moving forward.

Learn more about CommonWell Health Alliance: https://www.commonwellalliance.org/

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About the author

John Lynn

John Lynn is the Founder of HealthcareScene.com, a network of leading Healthcare IT resources. The flagship blog, Healthcare IT Today, contains over 13,000 articles with over half of the articles written by John. These EMR and Healthcare IT related articles have been viewed over 20 million times.

John manages Healthcare IT Central, the leading career Health IT job board. He also organizes the first of its kind conference and community focused on healthcare marketing, Healthcare and IT Marketing Conference, and a healthcare IT conference, EXPO.health, focused on practical healthcare IT innovation. John is an advisor to multiple healthcare IT companies. John is highly involved in social media, and in addition to his blogs can be found on Twitter: @techguy.

   

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