A future vision of interoperability in healthcare delivery

SECTOR UPDATE - Altera Digital Health

It’s clear that interoperability is evolving at a rapid pace, driven by a variety of technological advances over the past two decades, and that we can expect to see a continuation of data transmission and consumption, as well as greater adoption of these standards through 2030 and beyond. Because of enhanced interoperability capabilities required of different EHR systems, the consensus among my colleagues at Altera Digital Health is that patient data will no longer be confined to the four walls of any one provider organisation because of system incompatibility.

By the next decade, interoperability will give healthcare professionals the efficiency they desire today. Transferring information from one EHR to another will also no longer be a headache.

An example of the future of interoperability can be seen in South Western Sydney Primary Health Network’s (SWSPHN) innovative Integrated Real-time Active Data (iRAD) interoperability project, which has enabled healthcare organisations to share patient-consented health records across the continuum of care. SWSPHN serves a population of 1.1M people and is spread across seven local government areas of Bankstown, Fairfield, Liverpool, Camden, Campbelltown, Wollondilly and Wingecarribee. One of the biggest challenges facing healthcare delivery is the sharing of clinical datasets from multiple services and disparate systems. It is broadly accepted that easy and timely access to patient information across different sites, for example, the patient records of a general practice and a hospital situated in the same community, enables clinicians to be better informed, leading to improved patient management.

In 2017, SWSPHN partnered with Altera Digital Health to develop the flagship iRAD project, which is now pioneering open, connected health communities in Australia. iRAD was established to enhance the sharing of patient information, typically, when the patient is accessing services in more than one setting. These incorporate general practices, outpatient services, antenatal shared care sites, after-hours clinics, residential aged-care and palliative-care services. iRAD shares a host of patient and clinical information datasets, including demographics, diagnoses, medications, allergies, pathology and radiology. The project now comprises more than 60 general practices and a large local hospital emergency department. For clinicians, the benefits of iRAD includes access to reliable health information through a simple and intuitive system that aids informed clinical decision-making.

Altera’s role in iRAD is in the delivery of its cloud-based interoperability platform, the dbMotion™ Solution, which is available to the Australian market via Microsoft Azure. iRAD is the first implementation of dbMotion in the Asia-Pacific region and is also the first implementation globally on the Microsoft Azure platform.

iRAD reduces the administrative burden by saving time and limiting duplication and is well received by patients who no longer have to explain their health issues to multiple clinicians or have duplicate tests undertaken unnecessarily.

We see a bright future in which people can focus on higher value tasks rather than the mundane, where more time is spent with patients, not technology. The future of interoperability we envision is aspirational yet attainable.

Author: Todd Haebich, General Manager Altera Digital Health Australia and New Zealand

Source: Altera Digital Health media release

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