Insights
Deep dives on healthcare data infrastructure, engineering behind open-source interoperability, and stories from teams building the future of patient record access.
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The CommonWell Health Alliance is a national network of organizations committed to providing patients and providers with access to health data, regardless of where care occurs. CommonWell encourages EHR vendors and other relevant partners to adopt standards that make it easy to exchange health data, setting it apart from other interoperability efforts as a true health information exchange.
Wearable technology is growing into an increasingly influential player in patient and population welfare. On a large scale, these devices provide key insights into community behaviors and disease trends, and require specialized statistical structures to collect information. On the individual level, users are now encouraged to proactively approach health goals, without relying on healthcare professionals to take the lead. Healthcare professionals can stay ahead of the curve by getting up-to-date information on patient needs, through tools such as Metriport’s Device API, which provides seamless integrations with popular wearable devices, to give a complete picture of a patient’s health profile.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, more people have recognized the importance of assessing and measuring health performance remotely. In 2021, around 300 million wearables were shipped — this number is projected to double to close to 650 million by 2027. Wearables introduce a new level of personalization to healthcare, enhancing data-gathering for patients and healthcare professionals. In this guide, we’ll explore the impact of smartwatches, smart clothing, fitness trackers, and other wearable health solutions.
Applications, patient portals, and other tools are promoting patient access to valuable health data. Through technology, a patient, caregiver, or other loved one can simply swipe across a screen for a complete, 360° view of medical history.
The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) introduced the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement (TEFCA) to push healthcare further as an interoperable ecosystem. TEFCA is the compounded result of everything learned from past interoperability initiatives like Meaningful Use, Consolidated CDA (C-CDA), and the different versions of Health Level Seven (HL7). With added innovations, this document sets out to create a nationwide system for sharing health information across care settings, and is on the way to achieving this.
Passed into law in 2016, the ONC Cures Act was created to "accelerate the discovery, development, and delivery of 21st-century cures, and for other purposes.”. Otherwise simply known as the Cures Act, this body of rules looks out for the weightier aspects of healthcare, with provisions regulating research into major diseases, drug and medical device development, and mental healthcare. While the original Act is around 312 pages long, we’ll be giving a TL;DR version. Read on to learn the key aspects of the ONC Cures Act, and how its provisions are shaping the present and future of health information exchange across the United States.
EHRs are a one-stop shop for clinical and administrative patient information. These records hold everything from a patient’s demographic information to progress notes, medications, vital signs, immunizations, past medical history, and other records. Compared to paper-based systems, where records were spread out across filing cabinets in different physician offices — EHRs centralize patient medical history into a readily accessible and shareable digital format. This guide will explore why EHRs are a vital part of clinical workflows and how these systems promote patient-based care.
Before FHIR became the go-to standard for health data exchange, the industry went through different phases that encouraged the steady shift to, and standardized adoption of electronic records across clinical workflows. These phases, developed under the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH Act) — steered the standards for promoting the meaningful use of data to improve the quality of patient care. The C-CDA emerged from this process.
As the world accelerates faster into the digital age, healthcare innovators are constantly pioneering ways for technology to improve the care delivery process. In particular, focus is on health information exchange and how digitization can drive this sector into modern times. This guide will introduce FHIR and examine why this standard is mapping out the future of healthcare interoperability.
APIs are not only a faster and safer way to exchange clinical and medical data, but they are also a cost-effective option to do so. With data siloed in EHRs and HIEs, the financial and personnel costs of directly integrating with these systems can be steep. APIs act as willing middlemen to speed up connectivity to health record systems.
Only a decade ago, the health sector’s access to clinical data was powered by the sounds of printers, fax machines, and physical mail exchanging patient information. The current ecosystem is on a fast track away from the paper trail, as technology continues to enhance digital health information transfer. Our health systems are now deliberately built to be interoperable — with data leading the push for connected care delivery.
Digitization has transformed healthcare into an interconnected network of databases, systems, and applications. This advancement has shifted care delivery from a function documented across paper files, fax machines, and metal cabinets — to one backed by Electronic Health Records (EHR) and Health Information Exchanges (HIEs).
