4 ms·

I feel the correct solution to this problem is for legislation that forces hospitals to quickly, easily, and cheaply share patient information. If you go to one

I feel the correct solution to this problem is for legislation that forces hospitals to quickly, easily, and cheaply share patient information. If you go to one hospital and then go to another hospital up the street even though they probably both use epic they have to fax or mail records. Not for technical reasons but bureaucratic ones.

toomuchtodo 9y ago
You would be correct. The fix is to have the Department of Health and Human Services administer health records [1], and use Medicare funding as the stick to require its use. [1] This requires public policy implementation, US Digital Service/18F levels of technical competency, along with ruthless transparency and governance.
- ams6110 9y ago
  After the OPM debacle with security clearance records, I would not trust the government to do this properly. https://www.cnn.com/2015/07/09/politics/office-of-personnel-management-data-breach-20-million/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2015/07/09/politics/office-of-personnel-...
  - toomuchtodo 9y ago
    But you would trust a single hospital (or hospital network) to run Epic securely (and all that entails from a security and risk management perspective)? As someone affected by the OPM breach, I agree that it is bad. You can't paint the entire government with a broad brush though.
    - ams6110 9y ago
      Absolutely not. I'd like to opt out of all of it. But there's really no way.
      - toomuchtodo 9y ago
        Indeed. That is why there are no "best" solutions, only the least bad solution.
prepend 9y ago
The US currently has public comment on a rule/law/requirement requiring interoperability https://www.healthit.gov/sites/default/files/draft-trusted-exchange-framework.pdf https://www.healthit.gov/sites/default/files/draft-trusted-e... It’s not exactly what you want, but it’s a lot closer.
SkyPuncher 9y ago
That legislation is in place. It just requires some leg work on the patient end (you have a right to ask for your entire medical record with a covered entity). Sharing by default will never be a standard because it represents too many risks for data falling into the wrong hands.

toomuchtodo 9y ago

You would be correct. The fix is to have the Department of Health and Human Services administer health records [1], and use Medicare funding as the stick to require its use. [1] This requires public policy implementation, US Digital Service/18F levels of technical competency, along with ruthless transparency and governance.

ams6110 9y ago
After the OPM debacle with security clearance records, I would not trust the government to do this properly. https://www.cnn.com/2015/07/09/politics/office-of-personnel-management-data-breach-20-million/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2015/07/09/politics/office-of-personnel-...
- toomuchtodo 9y ago
  But you would trust a single hospital (or hospital network) to run Epic securely (and all that entails from a security and risk management perspective)? As someone affected by the OPM breach, I agree that it is bad. You can't paint the entire government with a broad brush though.
  - ams6110 9y ago
    Absolutely not. I'd like to opt out of all of it. But there's really no way.
    - toomuchtodo 9y ago
      Indeed. That is why there are no "best" solutions, only the least bad solution.

prepend 9y ago

The US currently has public comment on a rule/law/requirement requiring interoperability https://www.healthit.gov/sites/default/files/draft-trusted-exchange-framework.pdf https://www.healthit.gov/sites/default/files/draft-trusted-e... It’s not exactly what you want, but it’s a lot closer.

SkyPuncher 9y ago

That legislation is in place. It just requires some leg work on the patient end (you have a right to ask for your entire medical record with a covered entity). Sharing by default will never be a standard because it represents too many risks for data falling into the wrong hands.