To the uninitiated, interoperability may sound like a surgical term, but it actually refers to how IT systems and other technologies communicate with each other. The goal, of course, is seamless communication to improve efficiency and quality of care, but that's obviously a big challenge. Today on Raise the Line, we dive into this important issue with two people who come at it from different professional perspectives, but who share that goal. Oh, and they also happen to be brothers! Jake Engle is a Senior Director at Oracle Cerner, a supplier of health information technology used at thousands of facilities worldwide. His brother, Dr. Sam Engle, is a pediatric endocrinologist at Children’s Wisconsin. On the patient care side, Dr. Engle talks about the value of having a complete patient history in hand prior to appointments to maximize the efficiency of the time spent, but also to avoid doing duplicate tests. “Especially with kids, you never want to have to repeat labs if you don't need to. I feel very strongly about that.” From the tech side, Jake Engle addresses the challenge of trying to synthesize data from multiple sources such as EHRs, insurance records, public health databases or commercial products focused on one niche of healthcare. “I think the healthcare systems are a bit late to the game and it's much a more complicated game.” You’ll also learn about efforts to make it easier for patients to access their health data, the need for data standards in the industry and how their personal relationship contributes to this work.
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