The Opportunity for Health Information Exchanges (HIEs) to Untangle Health Records

The following is a guest blog by Monica Stout from MedicaSoft.  As the government’s Meaningful Use incentive program accelerated the adoption of Electronic Health Records, it also increased the use of patient portals and PHRs to meet MU patient engagement measures. You see this today when you’re offered a portal login at your doctor appointments. Other encouraging trends developed around the same time: Studies proved that engaged patients tend to exhibit more positive health outcomes at lower costs. Interest increased among patient populations to be involved in their health and wellness, including a desire to see (and even contribute to) their electronic medical records. Technology innovations flourished to support health (wearables, health devices, applications, etc.). Despite these trends and the relative success of MU-driven deployments, the patient portal and personal health record landscape leaves much to be desired for their primary users and audience – patients. Many of these tools were created simply to satisfy MU requirements and while they do this, they don’t completely tie together patients’ complex health histories, include data from multiple providers, or travel with the patient from visit to visit. Instead, patients have many different portals – a different one from every different provider. Who wants 10 different portals? Nobody has time for that! Patients need help assembling a single view of their health records. HIEs are unique in that they w...
Source: EMR and HIPAA - Category: Information Technology Authors: Tags: Digital Health Healthcare Healthcare Interoperability HealthCare IT Patient Portal PHR HIEs Medicasoft Monica Stout Patient Portals Patient-Centered Data Home PCDH Source Type: blogs