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EHR vendors aren't the major blocker here. Most of them have pretty good APIs now (at least for reading USCDI data from patient charts). But the data quality as
by nradov 2y ago
EHR vendors aren't the major blocker here. Most of them have pretty good APIs now (at least for reading USCDI data from patient charts). But the data quality as entered by users is often crap: when you're training it's going to be garbage in / garbage out unless you put enormous efforts into cleansing. And the raw images are often not in the EHR but rather in a separate PACS.
- jmward01 2y agoFrom what I have seen trying to build out new features into this area, EHR vendors often act like monopolies blocking a lot of competition by controlling any data exchange. The vendor lock-in is strong and very harmful to improving process and, ultimately, harms patient care.
- nradov 2y agoWhat specifically are they blocking? The most popular EHRs from vendors like Epic and Oracle have extensive interoperability APIs for multiple open industry standards. In general you can read all USCDI data pretty easily. Writing data is more limited, for understandable reasons. And if you want to distribute a SMART on FHIR app then you'll have to go through some sort of approval process. The strong vendor lock-in is unavoidable given how deeply an EHR gets embedded into any provider organization. No matter what regulators and standards bodies do, it will never be easy to switch.