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by baldfat 4438 days ago
TL&DR Regulations need to require interoperability and cross-platform with medical records and images.

As a "Cancer Dad" the electronic medical records and images that are closed and inaccessible between my local hospital where we got our chemotherapy and the Children's Hospital where we did our major surgeries was mind blowingly crazy.

I had to drive my bone cancer child 2.5 hours to use their equipment because there was an issue with the image file format. So I had to give my child enough pain killers to knock out a grown adult just so we could get the same pictures we could get 5 miles down the road.
1 comments
commandar 4438 days ago
As somebody working in healthcare integration, this may be small consolation, but it that's getting better.

The HITECH act[1] (which was part of the stimulus package in 2009) has gone a long way in getting the industry moving. One of the core deadlines we're scrambling to meet at the moment at my hospital is actually data interchange between facilities, including a portal that allows patients to access their records for themselves.

I realize that doesn't help your situation now, but with Medicare penalties looming for not getting that sort of exchange in place, things are starting to happen quickly in an industry that tends to move at a snail's pace.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HITECH_Act#Electronic_Health_Re...

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HillRat 4438 days ago
Out of curiosity, which HL7 CDAs (and which levels) do you support, and how much lift is it to set up import/export for a new provider or institution?

I'm pessimistic that we'll be able to achieve true level 3 interoperability, even though the basic ontologies (e.g., SNOMED, LOINC, etc) are in place. I'd love to hear that you're having a good experience, though.

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commandar 4438 days ago
Honestly, that end of things is kind of out of my element; I'm mostly involved in the message plumbing side of things.

Our actual HIE integration has been contracted out to Relay Health/McKesson. They're promising the world, but we're not far enough along for me to say whether they'll actually deliver at this point.

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