Organization set to drive device interoperability

A new independent nonprofit organization has been established to drive rapid, widespread and sustained interoperability of medical technology to improve patient safety and lower healthcare costs.

The Center for Medical Interoperability, funded by the Gary and Mary West Foundation, will be dedicated to enabling standards-based technical solutions to drive adoption of medical interoperability.

Hospital patients in a typical intensive care unit often are connected to six to 12 medical devices, which often are from different manufacturers and not connected to each other or to the EHR system. This requires redundant efforts to transfer data manually and a costly, complex IT infrastructure, both of which introduce the potential for miscommunication and errors that adversely affect patients. Analysis from the West Health Institute has estimated that improved medical device interoperability could save more than $30 billion a year in healthcare costs in the U.S.

Michael M. E. Johns, MD, former chancellor of Emory University and CEO of its Health Sciences Center, is the founding chairman of the board of the Center for Medical Interoperability. “Medical interoperability is the key to unlocking healthcare communications in the hospital and removing the proprietary information silos among medical devices and electronic health records,” said Johns. “By bringing hospital systems together, we can align all stakeholder interests in a neutral forum to include technology vendors, standards organizations, certification bodies, government agencies and healthcare associations under a common goal to improve healthcare.”

Membership of the Center for Medical Interoperability will be limited to hospitals and health systems. Industry leaders will be sought to participate on advisory forums and technical work groups.