Dive Brief:
- DirectTrust, a healthcare alliance of participants in the Direct exchange network, released its list of six trends for interoperable electronic exchange of health information in 2016.
- The trends for 2016 include patient participation and access to records; access will "free" health data and enable patients to "mash up" content from several services potentially offering personal and professional enrichment; meaningful use programs will be phased out; Federal and state agencies will increase interoperability; security, privacy, and identity will become priorities; and reliance on Direct exchange for transfer of patient health information will continue to grow.
- With the massive cyberattacks in the healthcare sector this year, the report says, "Parties involved in electronic data exchanges will insist on more and more rigorous certification, accreditation and audit of security and identity controls as a first condition of participating in data sharing."
Dive Insight:
An American Hospital Association (AHA) survey released earlier this year showed 75% of hospitals exchanged health information electronically with outside hospitals or ambulatory care providers in 2014, up from 9% in 2008, as previously reported by Healthcare Dive. AHA estimates hospitals spent $47 billion every year on health IT between 2010 and 2013. However, the report found the lack of interoperability between healthcare providers is a barrier to patient engagement and slows the reporting of public health, quality, and safety data.
Patient engagement was one of the growing trends DirectTrust predicted. "Healthcare consumers will take as their right, control of their own health information in much greater numbers," the report stated. Patient access to records will include the ability to move them to new providers and platforms.