Healthcare technology relies on data from users, but simply collecting that data is not enough. Ninety-five percent of doctors Said the increased data interoperability will improve patient outcomes. To make their products work better for users, healthcare tech companies also need to share their data with other healthcare providers, payers and software companies and create tools that interoperate with healthcare systems.
For the healthcare industry to experience dramatic change, innovations that truly open up the flow of data between interoperable systems are required.Existing healthcare businesses tend to support the status quo with data siloed in disparate systems, but new Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) Regulations Promote innovation, interoperability and the free flow of data. Americans have demanded greater transparency in healthcare for decades, and finally, there are governing bodies to back it up.
However, leveraging new interoperability requirements requires expertise to make data available, secure, and compliant with evolving regulations. To advance innovative products and solutions, medtech companies can follow these five steps:
1. Find the data store
One of the biggest problems facing healthcare technology providers is that they don’t know what data they have access to, whether it comes from the source system, what that data means or where it is. They cannot make informed decisions about new features or innovations without knowing the data available. Autodiscover tools can identify data vendors may not be aware they have and make it easier to centralize them in one place.
For example, a digital health and analytics company wanted to be able to create omnichannel medication adherence software to help patients and their healthcare providers track medication usage. Until they do, they need more device integration to access all the data.
Patients don’t always sit in front of their computers and keep track of medical data. They’re more likely to enter it on their phone or smartwatch, so they can update it as soon as they think about it. By adding these data integrations, the company was able to create useful software, including real-time analytics and drug package tracking.
2. Correctly map data
Many organizations within and outside of healthcare are trying to circumvent data mapping. Instead, they opted for “simpler” innovations, such as buying new technology, only to find they had the same problem a few months later. Until these organizations can identify and properly map their data, they have no hope of innovating successfully.
Data mapping is key to supporting interoperability and innovation for medical technology providers. However, innovative tech companies are often not run by data experts; they have analytics available because it makes good business sense to do so, but data is not at the center of their world.
However, data interoperability is critical to both innovation and meeting new requirements. So vendors have to figure out what data they have in which applications, then bring in APIs to connect all their data and pull it into a single FHIR store. For performance, security and clarity, this data store needs to be separate from the operational data store.
3. Find out where healthcare providers are interoperable
Healthcare organizations use major EHR and EMR systems that were once shut down, meaning healthcare technology providers can’t access this data or integrate their own data to improve patient care. However, with the introduction of new standards, these systems will start to open up. The problem is that not all healthcare organizations or providers are in the same place when FHIR is developed.
Mandates and standards leave a lot to be explained. So, while the obvious data blockage may not be obvious, the choices made by vendors can create downstream problems when starting to create APIs between EHR systems and new innovative applications.
For example, an innovative case management vendor wanted to provide a better user experience. However, something as simple as the EHR provider’s lack of optional data fields to access rich information (such as a result narrative) means that only the common name of the result can be communicated to downstream applications. Therefore, the interface does not provide enough information in the user interface to be beneficial. Innovation is difficult to achieve when necessary, and useful information is blocked.
Adoption itself takes time, and then there is a learning curve as organizations determine how best to implement FHIR. However, now that the latest FHIR standard is out, the industry is likely to see more mass adoption. Therefore, healthcare technology companies must monitor where hospitals and practices are located in terms of interoperability in order to have the greatest impact.
4. Stay compliant
Interoperability is also key to compliance. If organizations can’t track their data, how can they control who can access it? If they can’t control who has access, they’re more likely to violate HIPAA and other regulatory laws.
Unfortunately, new rule Can be quite complicated. For example, the data must be from within the past 24 hours, accessible through the API, and from the source system. Organizations must then also cross-reference national regulations with local regulations.
Frankly, it’s a mess, and unless admins can see all the data at once, there’s really no way for them to follow and deal with all the different compliance regulations. To innovate, vendors must be able to align their datasets with FHIR standards.
5. Protection of data
Interoperability introduces a degree of vulnerability to data, but it doesn’t have to be. Healthcare technology vendors must build platforms and APIs with security in mind, not an afterthought.
Helping here is that safety standards differ little between highly regulated industries, including healthcare and finance. A typical JSON engineer can handle encoding and provide the same security regardless of whether the person has healthcare experience. The key is having access to healthcare subject matter experts who provide guidance on business processes, user experience and regulatory requirements to ultimately ensure design security.
When it comes to security, front-end applications, headless environments, and ecosystem-level interoperability are still uncharted territory. Having a skilled team with balanced multidisciplinary knowledge is key to designing a safety application with a user experience that satisfies users and patients.
The need for data experts
Since most healthcare technology vendors are not data focused, they need to rely on professionals with technical and industry knowledge to properly map their data. This is the only way they can set themselves up for success in the long run.
New technologies won’t help unless they can leverage data, and tech vendors can’t focus on mapping data because they’re busy implementing the suite. On the other hand, data experts can identify and organize data to make future innovations cheaper, easier and compliant.
Photo: Filograph, Getty Images
