IT Solutions Providers: Understand The Intersection Of Healthcare Interoperability And Mobile

By Megan Williams, contributing writer

Healthcare IT interoperability is moving even further forward into the future of technology thanks to companies like Transcend Insights. At HIMSS15, Health IT Outcomes’ Health IT Voices had the chance to speak to Chief Medical Officer Dr. Tom Van Gilder to discuss advances in the changing face of healthcare interoperability.

Simpler Population Health Management

Transcend Insights' primary focus is on simplifying population health management. The company came about as the merger of an analytics engine, a health information exchange, and a mobile health platform development group. This has created a company that delivers analytics through community-wide interoperability, but with an orientation toward mobile.

Van Gilder stresses the importance of this approach as EHR adoption increases and interoperability and data sharing become more standardized. The industry is seeing systems that are more broadly diffused and with greater capabilities, but that at the same time, communicate more fluidly. He believes healthcare still has more progress to make, but that the industry is moving along.

For example, last year, Transcend Insights was able to help identify over 36 million care improvement opportunities including half a million drug interactions and safety issues, as well as 2.5 million medication adherence and testing opportunities.

Hyperlocal Healthcare

Van Gilder also addressed the question of hyper-locality in the modern healthcare environment, highlighting the differences between rural and urban care.

“There are systems in place, depending on which part of the country you’re in, as you identified urban versus rural. That’s where health technology is becoming a great equalizer, though, at different rates, admittedly, but the electronic health systems that work in urban areas can also work in rural areas … Again, this concept of interoperability, where the information follows the patient rather than the information staying within, for example, an EHR as a discrete document — we’re all about patient-centric, patient-centered information moving through the system.”

Getting Started

Gilder suggests that for an organization to get started, it must focus on understanding the local environment. After that, the organization should reach out to existing resources, like the ones HIMSS has available in helping organizations understand the healthcare ecosystem. Gilder also stresses the importance of listening to physicians.

“Physicians want systems that are simple, that enhance the experience, their experience, and their patient’s experience of care. Patients are looking for that integrated experience, so they’re not telling the same story over and over, so they’re not having duplicate testing done or missing opportunities.”