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by prostheticvamp 2236 days ago
As someone who was involved in the evolution of HL7 from the policy/medical side, I can tell you:

EMR systems lock us (healthcare systems) into proprietary formats to make migration to new clients difficult; likewise, we don’t (didn’t) push for interoperability because exporting data to other healthcare systems cost us more than it benefited us (we didn’t fight it, we just weren’t gonna spend our money to make it happen).

HL7 and other interoperability tech only emerged because CMS reps made their way to -a lot- of conferences and, with varying levels of bluntness, said “find a way to improve interoperability on your own, or you’ll see it show up in federal regs 12 months from now.”

This is a change that came from active regulators doing their jobs correctly, in spite of the active efforts of the tech industry and the indifference of the hospital industry.

So, I rarely say this but, thank you CMS.

3 comments

> only emerged because CMS reps made their way to -a lot- of conferences and, with varying levels of bluntness

I mean, to be honest, it makes sense... locked platforms are just death.. especially if you can't get your shit off it when it shuts down.

What's CMS? Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services?

https://www.cms.gov/

Yes.
Amazing! Go regulators, thanks for sharing, stories like these give me hope :-)