Empowered Patient Podcast Driving Interoperability and Ubiquitous Access to Healthcare Information with Dr. John Blair MedAllies
Dr. John Blair, CEO of MedAllies, was created to address the lack of communication and coordination between healthcare providers and the importance of interoperability in healthcare. While healthcare has become more complicated over the years, with advancements in technology and automation, the lack of reimbursement for coordination of care has contributed to the problem of lack of interoperability. There are incentives and penalties associated with interoperability, including information blocking and the Trust Exchange Framework and Common Agreement (TEFCA) initiative, which aims to standardize interoperability platforms and reduce barriers to entry for healthcare organizations.
John explains, "But if you look at hospitals, you've got about 70% of the hospitals in the country connected to a national network. That means there's 30% that are not. And then, if you start to break that down and look at rural areas versus urban, there's a big disconnect. These smaller rural hospitals tend to be far less connected than the larger urban hospitals. Then, if you even break it down in the urban areas, you look at certain areas, the more marginalized communities, and again, those hospitals are less likely to be connected. So that's the real issue right now as we're trying to move with interoperability, and as we're making more and more success or having more and more success, there are still those who are falling behind."
"Well, interoperability should improve care and care for an individual, the experience for the individual, the efficiency of the individual getting their care amongst multiple providers, and also improve the efficiency for providers in terms of coordination between other providers. And it will cost money to do that. I mean, it costs money for those connections to run these platforms -- millions and millions of dollars to run these annually."
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