Jay Nakashima, President at eHealth Exchange, discusses in this video interview some recent hot developments in health data exchange, and how he expects it to expand in the future.
HHS’s TEFCA project has been in force for some time, while the CMS-Aligned Network is new and has created confusion in the industry about the relatinship between them (Note: Steven Posnack has a great article that works to clear this up). eHealth Exchange is a designated QHIN under TEFCA and plans to implement the criteria necessary to become a CMS-Aligned Network as well. Nakashima recommends that anyone who has started to work with TEFCA continue to do so.
He calls TEFCA “prescriptive” and thinks that more varied options will become available.
Another important advancement currently taking place over the eHealth Exchange Network is bulk data access using FHIR. Instead of just sending data on one patient at a time, organizations will exchange data for an entire panel or population. This will help—for instance—to identify care gaps, such people who need a mammogram or colonoscopy.
Nakashima also expects the scope of data exchange over its network to expand widely, beyond the clinician-to-clinician exchanges (25 billion transactions annually) that dominate current uses. For instance, eHealth Exchange currently works with five government agencies (the VA, the Department of Defense, the Social Security Administration, the Indian Health Service, and the FDA) and hopes to pick up one or two more agencies.
FHIR-based data exchange should also be used for new applications such as public health and payer/provider communications. He expects that patient portals will implement key exchanges so that a patient doesn’t have to re-identify themselves at a new portal.
Vender networks have matured a lot over the past few years. However, Nakashima warns, healthcare will never interoperate as easily as ride sharing or banking because of the many variables and different types of data and organizations involved: multiple providers, lab results, medications, allergies, etc.
Watch the video with Jay Nakashima from eHealth Exchange for details about health data and interoperability today.
Learn more about eHealth Exchange: https://ehealthexchange.org/
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