We’ve Built the Foundation for Useful Information Sharing

The COVID-19 pandemic made clear that interoperability is not optional. Rather, interoperability is the foundation. It supports the infrastructure for useful clinical information sharing. And our network data shows that this information is more consumable and useful than ever before.

With momentum on our side, we’re closing interoperability gaps

When Joyce goes out of town on summer vacation, her health needs come with her. Maybe she runs out of medication or loses it while traveling. Maybe she gets sick or injured. But there’s no way for the local doctor to get a full picture of Joyce, including her clinical and medication history, because her patient information is all back home.

Or is it?

Isaac Newton said that an object in motion stays in motion, at the same speed and in the same direction, unless something happens to slow or speed it up. Newton was talking about physics, but with the right foundation in place, the same could be said about our accelerating progress to advance interoperability.

Get information from outside the clinic—and the state

Seven healthcare providers across four medical practices in two years: That is the median among patients in a study of Medicare beneficiaries. There’s no question that patients are mobile.

Record Locator & Exchange offers access to the most comprehensive data set of patient visit and clinical document locations from across EHR systems, allowing users to see where else their patients have received care. Healthcare professionals exchanged more than 622 million documents in the first half of 2022 (a 76% increase over the same period in 2021) covering over 62 million patients.

For perspective, 62 million patients is nearly 20% of the U.S. population.

Record Locator & Exchange was built to exchange clinical information nationwide, for more than 324 million patients, enabling care teams to get clinical documents from outside their own four walls.

Step away from the fax machine

One of our surveys last year found that only 21% of pharmacists always have enough information for proper medication therapy. The other 79% of pharmacists must dial the phone—or punch numbers on a fax machine—to get what they need from the prescriber. This takes time and is an administrative hassle.

To collaborate across multiple care scenarios, providers use Clinical Direct Messaging to send and receive information within their existing workflows. They sent over 84 million clinical messages in the first half of 2022, an increase of 36.8% over the same period in 2021.

More providers are opting for the ease and convenience of Clinical Direct Messaging.

Know what you don’t know

A 2019 survey of healthcare leaders revealed that interoperability gaps—caused by inaccessible patient data—were the most commonly cited barrier to value-based care, second only to a lack of resources.

Medication History for Populations was designed for value-based care. It identifies gaps in care related to medication adherence. Providers receive proactive notifications, so they can reach out to patients before nonadherence and adverse drug events can happen.

And more providers and care teams are using Medication History for Populations: We delivered over 20 million medication histories for patient populations to providers nationwide in the first half of 2022—a 25.6% increase over the same period in 2021.