[newman314]

Actually, this brings up a good question. Why not build a system where a patient can keep their record with them and only share as necessary. I'm thinking along the lines of a password manager.

This also removes the need for a giant centralized database which would be a nice ripe target.

[leovander]

Somewhere else in the thread someone mentioned about what happens when there is a network of hospitals speaking to each other. Some places in New York would call it a regional health information organization (RHIO).

If all your providers are in that RHIO, there will most likely be a central hub/repo where everyone posts their information to. There are a few localized initiatives in specific states, and there are larger statewide programs that try to consolidate all your records.

After all of that, some state funded RHIO's will get incentives for working with specific partners and even the Social Security Administration (SSA), which brings up a whole lot of headaches and having to meet their standards while at the same time meet all your local partners' standards as well.

Because the government has a high interest in ultimately getting everyone on one network they actual spend a lot of time and effort to try and better these connections and improve data transfer. One of those is this Blue Button initiative [1]. They even have multiple github repos [2] so you can see the underling logic of what a patient model comprises of. What they use is per the HL7 spec that was established in 2011/2013. (Every vendor references the same PDF spec. but there is still a lot of ambiguity in it. Essentially it is really hard to apply all the conditional logic of a clinical document into an XSD.) The funny thing is that with a stamped-and-sealed specification that people still fight over on calls, the HL7 organization are now pushing over to FHIR [3], a JSON based clinical item model. That will be interesting.

To answer your question/concern, there are definitely initiatives to try and make this better, but it will take time to get legacy systems up-to-speed and to meet new standards that are stagnated. You can reference my previous comment with my concerns about that [4].

Lastly, if anyone is new to the EMR/HIE/Medical field, Motorcycle Guy [5] will be your best friend.

[1] https://www.healthit.gov/patients-families/blue-button/about.... [2] https://github.com/blue-button [3] https://www.hl7.org/fhir/ [4] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12264411 [5] http://motorcycleguy.blogspot.com/

[craftsoftware]

Very interesting! Thanks for sharing.

[flukus]

Because then the patient can alter those records or see data the shouldn't (doctor writes a note about patients hypochondria).

Junkies can go from doctor to doctor getting the same script and then deleting the record.

[newman314]

<insert handwaving here>

I was thinking more along the lines of a credstick or leveraging blockchain like tech where a prescription would be signed. So data is still held local in some sort of secure enclave but something that requires both a doctor and patient to sign...