Dive Brief:
- In a surprise to those attending an ONC advisory committee meeting last Thursday, Epic president Carl Dvorak came out in favor of establishing a national record locator, an interface between vendor EHRs and providers that would establish a key component of interoperability, according to Politico.
- "I was surprised, but it was actually great to hear Carl suggest that," Jitin Asnaani, director of technology standards and policy at athenahealth, told Politico. He was one of the participants on the Interoperability and HIE workgroup call. "I was excited to hear him endorse the idea of a record locator service, because that's what [the Commonwell Alliance] provides."
- The Commonwell Alliance currently includes Cerner, athenahealth and other vendors, but not Epic. Asnaani said that he hoped this was a signal that Epic would soon join Commonwell.
Dive Insight:
While Dvorak's comments may have surprised some, it may not surprise those tracking the EHR industry race to win the Department of Defense's (DOD) coveted EHR business.
According to the transcript of an August 2014 ONC conference call—the HIT Policy Committee on Interoperability and Health Information Exchange Workgroup Listening Session Governance Subgroup—the record locator was brought up several times as a key element of interoperability. In attendance at that call was Barclay P. Butler, the president of the Defense Health Agency, and Elaine Hunolt from the DOD.
Interoperability has long been an issue for the DOD as they audition vendors for their $11-billion EHR engagement. The call transcript highlights a wide variety of ONC, VA and other interested agencies, as well as consultants from Audacious Inquiry and Robinson and Associates. In other words, a whole lot of people who have a whole lot to say about government EHR contracts were on a call where the case for a national record locator was spelled out in detail, with wide approval among the participants.
So, it's not that surprising that an EHR vendor's president, who has taken a few hits on the perception that he is resisting playing nice with other vendors on interoperability, would make a bold statement indicating the opposite. In fact, there are 11 billion reasons why that makes perfect sense.
Want to read more? You may enjoy this story on why Jonathan Bush thinks big vendors like Epic, Cerner will 'collapse'.