Putting information to work

Mary Stevens, Editor

As healthcare providers await the final requirements for Meaningful Use, with 2011 deadlines looming, HIMSS Analytics is working to find out what hospitals are doing now to move information to and from patient records and EMR systems.

HIMSS Analytics has added new data flow questions to its annual survey on meaningful use. The questions are designed to determine the progress of structured document standards that must be in place so that narrative data converts to a structured format that can be imported in to the EMR. Data gathered from the questions can help determine whether hospitals have these templates in place and how they are used in conjunction with the EMR, HIMSS Analytics said.

Standards-based formats for information exchange have the potential to create interoperability among systems, getting data beyond point-to-point interfaces. See the June issue of CMIO for more about the state of interoperability.
 
Getting more information into a useful state is also the goal of the Community Health Data Initiative (CHDI) announced by HHS and the Institute of Medicine. The CHDI aims to share the rising tide of community health data in new ways, to help improve health and the value of healthcare. The CHDI will do this by recruiting web application developers and harnessing mobile phone apps, social media and other tools. Public health tweets and smartphone apps that offer location-based health information are already here, but a federal initiative could expedite development and distribution efforts. 

More information is what's needed when it comes to gauging the usability of EMRs, says a report funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). Usability is a critical factor in EMR adoption and appropriate use, but best practices and standards of EMR design, testing and usability monitoring are scarce, and vendors haven't always made usability a top priority, the AHRQ report said.  

Among the report's recommendations, this one stands out: A call for vendors to support an independent body for collaboration and standards development "to overcome market forces that discourage collaboration, development of best practices and standards harmonization in this area." Federal efforts to transparently test and certify EMRs are under way, but a private, vendor-neutral group could give those efforts a boost, if all parties cooperate. This is a big "if," but building the infrastructure to deliver meaningful health information will take nothing less. 

Mary Stevens, editor
mstevens@trimedmedia.com