DeSalvo on Data Sharing

[JaimeS]

http://www.healthcareitnews.com/new...ture-interoperability-and-health-data-sharing

ONC chief Karen DeSalvo: Time to change the culture of interoperability and health data sharing

There needs to be a better business case for sharing data because consumers expect it and HIPAA allows it, said National Coordinator Karen DeSalvo, MD. And Americans are growing increasingly impatient.

Very interesting -- DeSalvo is the Acting Assistant Secretary for HHS in the US -- a pretty high-up position, despite the 'acting' and 'assistant' in the title.

-J

 

[Richard7]

@JaimeS I do not know anything about the local healthcare system and politics around it, but the article seems to be about institutions sharing patient reccords.

 

[undiagnosed]

While I think it is undoubtedly good that there is an effort improve interoperability, I'm not sure this approach will be widely adopted; at least not in the near future. I looked into it a bit and this was primarily dealing with open interfaces for sharing electronic health records between providers and patients in the form of FHIR (Fast Health Interoperability Resources) based apps. The government has a national objective to achieve health data interoperability by the end of 2018. I'm not sure what the metrics for meeting that goal are, but it will be a ways off in any case. In addition, I'm not sure how the data will be accessed and what restrictions may be placed on it. I would just like to remind everyone of grassroots efforts here for sharing data where patients are in complete control of the data. For anyone who hasn't seen the threads, you can find out more here and here if you'd like to get involved.