Dive Brief:
- Partners HealthCare is teaming up with Persistent Systems to create an industrywide open source platform capable of information exchange across health providers.
- The digital platform — part of a four-year collaboration announced Tuesday — will be modeled on Substitutable Medical Applications, Reusable Technologies (SMART), an open, standards-based technology platform, and Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR).
- Once developed and implemented, providers will be able to “rapidly and cost effectively deploy industry-leading best practices in clinical care across their ecosystems,” the organizations said in a release.
Dive Insight:
EHR vendors are starting to embrace open platforms and a connected digital experience for customers. Allscripts, Cerner and Epic have each revealed that they are offering APIs that facilitate interoperability, patient identification and other functionalities. The trend will enable third parties to develop software and apps that can be accessed through disparate programs.
Open-source platforms could be a boon for clinical network management. According to a recent report by Chilmark Research, provider organizations will develop CMN capability if it supports broader business or clinical goals such as accountable care organizations, population health management or quality improvement.
In a recent survey by NEJM Catalyst, 81% of healthcare executives and clinicians said the biggest opportunity for big data is in care coordination. That was followed by decision support (79%), predictive analytics (68%) and precision medicine (45%).
The Partners-Persistent deal follows Partners’ disappointing $108 million operating loss for fiscal year 2016, which was blamed in part of implementation of a new EHR system. Under the collaboration, Persistent will facilitate digital transformation of clinical care at Partners.
Partners, Massachusetts biggest health system, has been busy with deals in 2017. Last week, the organization announced plans to buy Care New England Health System of Rhode Island, the second largest system in that state.