Interoperability: Look toward the future

Q. Where do you see the future of interoperability?  

A. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of interoperability in health care. With the sudden increase in telehealth appointments and remote patient monitoring, health care professionals who were or could quickly become interoperable were able to quickly adapt because they could exchange patient data seamlessly between different EHR systems. As a result, impact to patient care was minimized during a time of great strain. 

Looking to the future, interoperability will continue to be critical in ensuring that patients receive coordinated, high-quality care. By putting the patient at the center of their care journey and allowing them to engage with practitioners using different EHR systems, we can help make sure that no one falls through the cracks. Though the industry has changed in countless ways, interoperability and its importance has only continued to ascend.  

Interoperability has the potential to revolutionize health care. By enabling different systems to share data, interoperability can help create a more coordinated and effective health care system.

With the click of a button, files can be transferred, opened, read and digested by their health information technology system, while electronic prescriptions are being filled and bills are paid. As we look toward the future, interoperability is foundational to creating and maintaining a health care system that is guided by the patient's choice. As the federal agencies who play a role in interoperability continue to advance mandates, and as vendors continue to invest more in connecting our care domain, we will continue to see progress in interoperability that matters in our care settings – referrals and orders being increasingly processed through interoperability modalities, touchless resupply workflows, reduction in fax reliance and novel solutions to solve the problems our providers face daily. We are at a pivotal moment in our industry, and interoperability will play an increasing role in solving care, operations and other related issues. 

Nick Knowlton is vice president, business development at Brightree. FMI: www.brightree.com.