Federal Health Innovation Day
This week my optimism was rewarded by the information shared at the Federal Health Innovation Day hosted by the Nashville Health Care Council and Vanderbilt University Owen Graduate School of Management.
My main interest was to meet and listen to the ASTP/ONC presenters because addressing information blocking in health care is a main driver in my personal and professional life.
For healthcare insiders and patients, here is useful information from the event.
Health Innovation – VA, CDC, and ASTP/ONC
Lots of information was shared and, of course, the coming role/promise/hope of Artificial Intelligence was mentioned every few minutes.
Scroll down for more on AI in health care.
New to me:
- TheVHA Innovation Ecosystem is very active and led by Dr. Mark Zhang who reported his office is alive, awake, and enthusiastic about innovation. Their role is to enhance Veteran Care and the VA Pathfinder platform streamlines how innovators, the health industry, and the VA Community can innovate and collaborate with the VA. This year around 9 million veterans are enrolled in its health care program.
- The CDC presentation by its Division Director Dr Jim Jirvis was both informative and a chance for us to re-connect 15 years after our short project at Vanderbilt Medical Center. In a few slides, Jim masterfully summarized the golden opportunities that aligning and farming patient data provides for the health of our country. I’m looking forward to receiving (and utilizing) his slides.
- The recent ASTP/ONC (formerly ONC) and its 20-year anniversary celebration was, frankly, a bit of a letdown for me as well as others. More on that …
What the ASTP/ONC Missed
Missed opportunities. That’s what my Mom calls those times when a person (i.e. me) does not deliver the thing needed most.
Not missed by the ASTP/ONC: sharing a lot of good and valid information about the ASTP/ONC’s very effective past 20 years of driving health innovation, even across different presidential agendas.
The ASTP/ONC missed an opportunity: using the microphone that day to be sure the 150 executive participants representing all healthcare sectors clearly understood how and why information blocking of health data violates Federal legislation with fines even greater than HIPAA.
There was no mention of how/why eliminating data blocking will very quickly improve and accelerate the delivery of patient care for each U.S. citizen.
Instead, the presenter mentioned ‘there’s been enough said about information blocking’ and focused on other programs
Today’s Reality of Health Information Blocking
I spoke with two dozen people at the session and brought up health data blocking. Most recognized the The Cures Act but not one said they clearly understood the impact of the legislation for their sector of the healthcare or as a patient.
Yikes.
The unrestricted flow and blocking of patient information following HIPAA guidelines continues to be widespread.
As a patient, I have been told I cannot access my patient data in a health data clearinghouse (HIE). In addition, my company’s customers – health providers and managed care organizations – are being stalled and even refused access to the patient data guaranteed them by The Cures Act.
Health information blocking is impacting your health care, my health care, and everyone’s health care.
The blocking of health data blocking is impacting deploying Artificial Intelligence in health care.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Health Care
To me, AI is like the ‘cool kids’ in high school – a lot of promise but time will tell.
In healthcare, AI will deliver and fill gaps and improve and accelerate and…
…. but our round table discussions at the event made one item very clear:
AI performance is based on the quality of the data it consumes.
Today, AI is very realistically limited due to the ongoing issues with data blocking in healthcare.
It was suggested that AI may be used to identify the source of gaps and black holes of patient data – the source being the Actors referred to in The Cures Act legislation.
Who can report health information data blocking
“Anyone”. Literally any patient, provider, organization, or tech company.
This is from the ASTP/ONC website:
Anyone who believes they may have experienced or observed information blocking by any health care provider, health IT developer of certified health IT, or health information network or health information exchange is encouraged to share their concerns with us through the Information Blocking Portal on ONC’s website, HealthIT.gov.
Two powerful words buried above: “observed” and “encouraged.”
The claim is submitted anonymously. The submitter can open an account and check on the status of their claim. There is no whistle-blower program. The submission is exempt from any Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) filing.
Here is the current status of information-blocking claims.
Nearly 70% are made by patients – fighting for their access to their data so they can improve the care they receive.
Not enough claims are made by providers or managed care companies.
Overall there are too few claims. The ASTP/ONC, in my conversations with them, agree.
Missed opportunities – like at this conference – contribute to the delays in achieving value-based care goals, improving care workflows, implementing AI, and more.
Your Role in Patient Care
Are you relying on a ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ health app as a patient/caregiver or established interoperability as a provider or tech company that improves patient care? Share some thoughts in the comments.
Whether you are personally invested (at some point we are each a patient), a caregiver, or professionally engaged (healthcare is 17.3% of the GDP) staying informed about emerging patient technologies is crucial, and interesting.
Subscribe to my company’s website to stay updated on the latest in patient-related healthcare technology and engagement.
After all, it’s all about We The Patients, right?
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