Mostashari: Hard-to-meet measures will move data exchange forward

Farzad Mostashari, MD

Meaningful Use Stage 2 measures will propel electronic healthcare communication from its current state of disarray toward the ultimate goal of nationwide health information exchange, according to National Coordinator for Health IT Farzad Mostashari, MD, ScM.

“Getting the right information to the right person at the right time can be a matter of life and death,” he said in an Aug. 28 HealthIT.gov blog post. “Unfortunately, anyone who has been a patient or cared for a patient understands that it’s simply not happening.”

Stakeholders strongly disagreed about how to package electronic health information when the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) was drafting Stage 1 MU measures in 2009. “Our hopes and expectations were subdued by the reality we faced,” Mostashari wrote. “There was simply no consensus on how the internet could be used to securely send patient information.”

To encourage the development of clear electronic pathways for health information to follow, the ONC revisited data exchange with renewed vigor the second time around. Now, the health IT agency has developed common standards for the electronic exchange of patient records, implemented testing and certification programs to ensure EHR interoperability, and issued Meaningful Use measures requiring providers to actually engage in the electronic exchange of clinical information.

The new Meaningful Use measures may not be easy to achieve and have been met with stiff resistance by some. It is “unrealistic” to believe providers will be able to meet electronic exchange requirements by deadlines outlined in the final rule for Meaningful Use Stage 2, according to an American Hospital Association statement. The measures require electronic interaction both among providers and with patients, but faulty health information exchanges and apathetic patients could prevent this.

The measures are ambitious, Mostashari admits. But they also are achievable and likely to drive information exchange progress just as Stage 1 measures drove EHR adoption. “While any rulemaking includes some compromises between the aspirational goals we want to achieve and the reality of where the market is, we continue to make progress toward the ultimate goal of nationwide health information exchanges."

Read Mostashari's complete post at HealthIT.gov.