HIMSS Buzz: Data Liquidity
One of the “buzziest” announcements last week at HIMSS, the annual health IT conference and exhibition, was the launch of the CommonWell Alliance. CommonWell is a non-profit organization created by five major vendors of electronic medical records (EMRs) to develop, promote, and certify a “national infrastructure with common platforms and policies for health data liquidity.”
The announcement drew attention because of the five vendors that agreed to collaborate—Cerner, McKesson, athenahealth, Greenway, and RelayHealth—and the one that was missing—Epic, the largest EMR vendor. It’s not clear if Epic was invited to join or not, and most of the details about how the five will achieve interoperability are not yet known. It’s also not clear to what degree the founding five were inspired by doing the right and necessary thing—release patient health information from vendor and institutional silos and grant patients access (with privacy and security) to their own data—and how much they were inspired by the urge to compete with Epic.
Data liquidity/exchange/interoperability was one of two hot topics at HIMSS this year. The other was patient experience/engagement/empowerment, which was often discussed in terms of data exchange. New models of care delivery and payment developing under healthcare reform—accountable care organizations and bundled payment, for example—encourage institutions to coordinate a patient’s care across different settings and providers and encourage patients to become activated consumers. To do that, patients’ health data must flow with them and be accessible wherever they receive care.
The requirements for Meaningful Use of health IT under the HITECH Act have been an important part of the agenda at HIMSS for the past three years, and this year they were another reason to focus on interoperability. To qualify for reimbursement in Stage 2, hospitals and providers must demonstrate that their patients can access their health data electronically and transmit the information to a third party.
Data liquidity, including device interoperability, and patient engagement will continue to be important, complex challenges regardless of how long the buzz lasts.
The CommonWell Alliance announcement drew good coverage and discussion online. For a sample of news stories and editorials, see the following:
“Six EHR Vendors Form Trade Group to Promote Integrated Healthcare” by John DeGaspari for Healthcare Informatics
“Behind the Curtain of Healthcare’s New CommonWell Alliance” by Dan Munro on Forbes.com
“CommonWell Alliance at HIMSS13” (sponsored video) for HealthcareITNews
“CommonWell is a Shame and a Missed Opportunity” by Adrian Gropper, MD, on TheHealthCareBlog.com (with extended discussion in the comments)
“Biggest HIMSS New for Families: CommonWell Health Alliance for Getting Our Data to Be Where We Need It” by Dave deBronkart