AAFP seeks urgency for interoperability

Comments regarding the federal interoperability roadmap are coming in and the American Academy of Family Physicians wants to see some action.

AAFP's board chair Robert Wergin, MD's letter to the  Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT says that AAFP members do "not sense the necessary level of urgency to achieve this important goal and call on ONC to further accelerate this work." And, the health IT ecosystem needs "to undergo more rapid transformation than has been the case to date."

Wergin says vendors have profited significantly from the HITECH Act while providers have multiple unmet needs including the following:

• Systems that provide interoperability to support continuity of care and care coordination
• The ability to switch and integrate different health IT solutions, such as EHRs, with minimal disruptions
• Population management and patient engagement functionalities that require broad interoperability
• Features developed with user-centered design and that take into account the transformed practice environment

Meanwhile, vendors have not been held responsible for poor design and lack of interoperability. Physicians and patients don't have the luxury of waiting until 2024, as laid out in the federal plan, for improved interoperability.

"If we want physicians and other clinicians to transform their practices and be successful in the value-based payment models established by MACRA (Medicare Access and Children's Health Insurance Plan Reauthorization Act, then we must ensure that the information technology infrastructure is capable of assisting them," he wrote.