Regenstrief Center Seeks to Streamline Health Information
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowThe Indianapolis-based Regenstrief Center for Biomedical Informatics has launched a pilot program designed to improve the storage and flow of electronic health care information. The Fast Healthcare Interoperability Standard merges data from individual medical records with the state’s common health information exchange platform, the Indiana Network For Patient Care.
The Regenstrief Center says often, healthcare providers do not have complete health information for their patients, which can lead to subpar care and can endanger patients. Titus Schleyer, a Regenstrief Institute investigator, says the pilot program is the first of its kind and could have a huge positive impact on patients.
"Using FHIR, we can combine information about a specific patient stored in systems developed by different vendors and installed in different healthcare institutions," said Schleyer. "This brings us much closer to a ‘lingua franca’ for health information, so clinicians finally have complete information available about their patients."
Schleyer says, as an example, patients could potentially use an app on their smart phones to combine multiple lists of medications prescribed by various providers into one current list. That way, when a patient sees a different provider, that provider has up-to-date information to review.
"FHIR helps us create a secure, complete, accessible, and useful set of health information needed by clinicians and patients."