Modern health care is predicated on helping patients, as well as providers, make effective use of patient data. To do so requires access, identity verification, and smart applications to analyze the data. Thus, it’s appropriate that this video brings together leaders from companies in each of these areas.
xCures, represented by CEO Mika Newton, offers AI-based tools for aggregating, structuring, and organizing medical records.
Kno2, represented by Co-Founder and President Therasa Bell, is a Qualified Health Information Network (QHIN) and large national network, bringing its clients up to date with requirements to give patients access to their data.
CLEAR, represented by Marcos Domiciano, Senior Director, Healthcare Business Development, is a well-known secure identity platform that serves health care sites as well as airports, retail, and other settings.
Newton and Bell pointed out that for the first time, thanks to the spread of standards and protocols such as CMS’s Trusted Exchange Framework and the Common Agreement (TEFCA), data is becoming available to a wide range of patients and can be processed through AI, making digital health possible.
Newton points in particular to the Individual Access Services (IAS) solution from xCures to get data in electronic form cancer patients, who notoriously have to collect and deal with huge amounts of data from different sources. Newton refers to the “Internet of medical records” as the goal.
Bell shares some sobering statistics about the state of patient access to data today. Because much health care takes place outside of clinics and hospitals, and because many EHRs are still not certified for Meaningful Use, 60-70% of every patient’s record is inaccessible. Bell says that she thinks Kno2 and other QHINs will reduce that to 20% by bringing another 150,000 provider organizations into TEFCA by the end of this year.
Interoperability was not automatic with standards adoption. Bell said her company worked with others for six months to make it work. By March 2025, every endpoint in their network could connect. Any organization partcipating in TEFCA is legally required to respond to individual access as well as they do to clinical queries.
Domiciano points out that interoperability starts with identity verification. Patient identity is currently fragmented and methods of authentication are not consistent. CLEAR, which has 33 million members, is creating a “reusable identity” that crosses all venues and meets CMS’s standards. This, Domiciano, addresses one of providers ‘main pain points.”
Bell points out that most doctors now have a verifiable identity, but many other professionals such as nurses and EMTs do not. This has to be addressed as well for effective data exchange.
Furthermore, if a match turns up the wrong records, leading to a patient receiving the records of anther patient, that’s a serious HIPAA violation. Bell says that providers need to collect the proper data on each patient to make matches certain.
Newton mentioned some of applications that are already making value of data, particularly in the areas of decision support and fitness/wellness. Interoperability can bring these processes together without making people enter their data more than once. Ultimately, the question to ask is “Are you getting the health care you should be getting?”
Check out our interview with xCures, CLEAR, and Kno2 to learn more.
Learn more about xCures: https://xcures.com/
Learn more about CLEAR: https://identity.clearme.com/healthcare
Learn more about Kno2: https://kno2.com/
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