Guest Columnist
Information Integration: Gaining the Digital Advantage
By
Feb 26, 2010 - 11:07:57 AM

(HealthNewsDigest.com) - Healthcare providers have an unprecedented number and variety of information technology balls in the air. A few – like those that demonstrate “meaningful use” of standardized electronic health records and participating in regional heath information exchanges – are very large and important. Many are moving at uncomfortable speed, driven not only by government-imposed deadlines but also by the cost and competitive pressures of an industry in transition.

Traditionally, healthcare IT has tended to move at a measured pace, to be reactive. Precious investment dollars have gone to clinical technologies, as opposed to not moving ahead of the curve on information management and use. But now healthcare providers must move quickly and with purpose, recognizing that electronic information – about patients, processes, outcomes – is the most basic clinical technology. They have 3-4 years to accomplish a technological transformation that took a decade in other industries, such as financial services and telecommunications, when their delivery models were profoundly changing.

The big opportunity, which will be staring IT executives in the face, is that as physicians begin to adopt electronic health records new business patterns arise and with them opportunities for business growth. With this change, Chief Information Officers can now append their middle name – from information – to information integration. The Chief Information Integration Officer has a unique vantage point to achieve IT funding growth with broader stakeholder engagement through exchanges, repositories and analytics. Historically, when looking back at other industries which have already gone through periods of massive digitization and “connective-ness,” there have been winners and losers. Many of the losers simply focused on the digitization of current processes, while the biggest winners focused on integrating and enriching the information flowing throughout the exchange.

Some key opportunities for getting on the winning side of the equation and gaining “the digital advantage” involve standards-based integration of information and sharing of quality measurements across the exchange. When information is enriched with measurement, stakeholders can analyze their current quality processes and discover new ways to connect, innovate and improve.

For this to work, as defined in the table below, healthcare executives need to clearly understand the improvement goals for each of the stakeholders in adopting integrated electronic healthcare records.

Stakeholder From: Current Worst Case To: Future Best State
Provider Inconsistent Predictable
Patient Faceless Personalized
Family Ignored Engaged
Practitioner Inconvenienced Informed
Payer Suspicious Confident
Self Insured Employers Detached Connected
Government Inefficient Efficient
Industry Fragmented Coordinated

When customers deliver integrated and enriched information, it spawns value chain innovation across key stakeholders. This allows for more rapid IT adoption and accelerates the meaningful use of Electronic Health Records.

A critical factor for adoption of EHRs is having on-ramps for paper processes so all information can be exchanged seamlessly in support of real world healthcare workflows. At HIMSS Interoperability Showcase you may see a demonstration of Cross-Enterprise Document Sharing (XDS.b) and Cross-Enterprise Document Sharing for Imaging (XDS-I.b), both based on EMCs Integrated Information Infrastructure Solutions for Healthcare. With solutions like this and others demonstrated in this showcase, providers may engage their stakeholders with secure and virtualized information to enable growth while truly gaining a digital advantage during this accelerated period of information exchange.

In an interview on Bill Moyers Journal(1), Dr. Jim Yong Kim, co-founder of Partners in Health and now president of Dartmouth College, described the real “rocket science” in health care delivery. It lies not in new drugs and treatments, but in “the human science of how you transfer simple information from one person to the next.” Medical schools don’t research or teach this, but they should – “the human rocket science of how you make health care systems work well.”

We agree. The key to greater consistency, productivity, and innovation in delivery processes is getting information to the “front lines,” not just into the management reports. That’s where information gets used and makes a difference; it’s where physicians, nurses, and other employees interpret and act upon the details, discover patterns and self-optimize, and teach and learn from one another. This entails more than EHR implementation. The front lines need information about their work processes, starting with basic patient-view metrics such as “door to doc” time. They need communication and coordination tools that save them time and effort. They need information and analytics to support day-in, day-out decision. Give them the integrated information and gain the digital advantage. For further information, please go to: EMC Consulting

David Dimond is the national leader for EMC’s healthcare consulting practice. He has more than 20 years of consulting experience in bringing ideas and concepts to life by creating and delivering leading-edge healthcare technology solutions. His team skillfully blends digital technologies with standards-based architectures and agile methods to provide clients with a competitive edge. EMC Consulting

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/09112009/transcript2.html

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