- Final Interoperability Rule Has Implications for APIs, FHIR
- FHIR-based Pharmacy Care Coordination Platform Goes Live in 50 States
“Healthy, clean data is the most powerful tool in the healthcare arsenal,” Don Woodlock, vice president of healthcare solutions at InterSystems, said in the announcement.
“Access to information greatly improves the overall care experience — from the patient, provider, and payer perspective. HealthShare 2020.2 is a culmination of all that we’ve learned this year and proactively developed with our partners and customers to ensure data is available when and where it is needed,” he continued.
HealthShare 2020.2 also promises to significantly boost access to clinical, payment, and provider directory data, setting the foundation for the company’s recently released HealthShare CMS Solution Pack.
The HealthShare system provides customers with full data and application support to address the CMS Interoperability and Patient Access Final Rule, which gives patients increased access to their own medical data.
Specifically, providers and payers can give their patients access to their personal medical records and claims data through API-enabled third-party applications. In return, patients gain greater control of their individual health.
InterSystems noted that the data model connects to FHIR profiles from CARIN Alliance’s Blue Button 2.0 implementation guide and supports the US Core Data for Interoperability (USCD) and Da Vinci Patient Data Exchange (PDex) Plan-Net standard for search and retrieval.
And in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the new suite of healthcare tools also includes COVID-19 analytics dashboards and a Clinical Viewer, which adds COVID-19 test status icons and chart options for providers.
These advances permit care teams to track and monitor COVID-19 patients in a more efficient way.
“HealthShare 2020.2 is the formal release of product enhancements that have been made throughout 2020 in direct response to the changing healthcare landscape and the COVID-19 pandemic,” InterSystems said.
“With expanded analytics and enhanced clinician and patient portals, clinical, health plan, and pharmacy benefits data are now more actionable and readily usable across the health ecosystem,” the company stated.
Experts believe FHIR offers many improvements to existing technology standards, including a focus on implementation, multiple implementation libraries, a strong foundation on web standards, and conciseness.
During the pandemic, the Office of National Coordination for Health IT (ONC) announced an interoperability rule, which required certified health IT developers to establish secure, standards-based APIs to support patient’s access to vital data in their electronic health records.
The rule aims to give patients transparency into the cost and outcomes of medical care and ensure convenient health data access on computers, cell phones, and mobile applications.
But the rule will also advance the needs of healthcare providers, as it helps boost innovation and competition as well as prevent information blocking that many providers face when looking to provide informed care for their patients.
Overall, the rule uses modern day technology to promote patient access to EHRs, support provider needs, and advance industry-wide information blocking practices.
“Placing patients at the center of care is critical to all that we do at ONC and the final rule continues to advance that goal, including provisions that support the ability of patients to securely and easily obtain their EHI at no additional cost when electronically accessed,” ONC concluded in the March announcement.
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