Expert Reactions: Rita Torkzadeh, Senior Consultant
I agree with Dr. Jacobs and don’t subscribe to the “build it and they will come” philosophy when it comes to Health Information Exchange (HIE), or any other Health IT implementation effort. The key to effective use really depends on how well the system is designed and optimized for the end-user, whether that is Dr. Jacobs who values viewing his patients’ active medications, or any other provider or consumer of health information that interacts with technology across the care continuum. It takes time to get this right in standalone environments in the absence of interfaces. When you start throwing in information exchange capabilities there is added complexity involved in building and maintaining that interoperability, not all of which is technical. Dr. Jacobs’ ability to continue seeing a patient’s current medication history may rely on health information exchange to obtain updated pharmacy-specific information, but also depends on whether and how the medications that are not ordered and recorded using standards-based computerized methods are documented in the Electronic Health Record. HIE can add value where information from different sources, including patient-driven Personal Health Records (PHRs), serves to close information gaps in practice-based systems and improve clinical decision support among physicians that have a more complete picture of the patient.
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