When a lot of people are all focused on one aspect of healthcare it can be really easy to get pulled into that same point of view and forget about other factors and angles. So let’s take a moment today to focus on those other factors and angles that no one is talking about. There are a lot of very exciting innovations that are happening to or are being talked about for EHR systems. But what innovations aren’t being discussed or happening for EHR systems that should be?
Looking for our answers, we reached out to our talented Healthcare IT Today Community to ask them — what EHR innovation should be happening that isn’t? The following are their answers.
Vijay Adapala, EVP Global Supply Partnerships at Doceree
Electronic Health Records (EHR) represent a transformative advancement in the healthcare sector, with several innovations poised to significantly alter the healthcare landscape. For example:
- Real-Time Collaboration Tools: These tools enhance communication among care teams, promoting effective collaboration
- Improved Patient Access: They offer interactive views of health data, thereby improving patient access to their information
- Integration of Social Determinants: By incorporating non-medical factors into patient records, EHRs can provide a comprehensive history that may assist in diagnosing diseases
- EHR-to-Research Pipelines: These pipelines enable the sharing of data for research and development purposes
Rahul Sharma, CEO at HSBlox, Inc.
An EHR system needs to make a 360-degree view of patient data accessible in a secure manner that can be made available using standard interfaces like FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources) APIs for structured data exchange and DICOM for imaging. In order to do so, data digitization techniques like NLP (Natural Language Processing) and Computer Vision need to be used to digitize legacy data that exists within EHRs to accurately and properly categorize patient data across different data ontologies. For new data records, the utilization of an AI scribe in an EHR can record and transcribe patient interactions appropriately, thus saving time for the providers and reducing errors in data records.
EHRs should also provide patients with digital wallets or personal health records (PHRs) and allow them to grant access to their records selectively, making it easier for providers to obtain relevant information from different sources. Patients can thus share their wearables data using supported interfaces, thus enhancing the 360-degree view of their health records. Financial incentives for health organizations can encourage them to adopt interoperable EHR solutions. Value-based programs that reward coordinated care can create a motivation for sharing patient data across providers, leading to improved patient outcomes and reduced duplicative care.
Andrew Hines, Chief Technology Officer at Canvas Medical
I want to see more simulation capabilities both for medical education but also for clinical decision support. Simulation has had a massive impact on all information processing disciplines but not yet clinical medicine. The time has come.
Vijay Verma, VP of Product at TeleVox
EHRs should take a hard look total cost of ownership to implement and support EHRs within hospital systems. This is not only a financial investment, but also an attention investment. Providers spend upwards of 4 hours daily within EHRs and Nurses spend upwards of two hours daily. This time and money comes at a cost to giving attention to patients which is the core of healthcare. In a healthcare system where costs are rising, job satisfaction is decreasing and outcomes are stalled, EHRs should be focused on being a silent partner rather than being a heavy time, money, and attention investment. Coupled with open integration allowing for other vendors to collaborate on addressing the challenges in healthcare, this gives us the best shot at impacting staff burnout while increasing appointments, revenue, efficiency, and patient outcomes.
Stephanie Murray, Senior Director, Epic Services at CereCore
Mergers, acquisitions, and partnerships have become a common theme throughout the healthcare industry. However, combining multi-organization system data, even for organizations on the same EHR, is still a challenge. Healthcare organizations need an avenue that allows their providers, clinicians, and staff to document and share information across systems. That may be in the form of assimilating the data into one system, broadening access to multiple systems, and/or granting access to legacy system data. EHR innovation should enable the various strategies organizations choose by evolving features that better support market-level health system data, allowing clinicians to care seamlessly for patients.
Lyle Berkowitz, CEO at KeyCare
From the perspective of a telehealth provider on Epic, I see some unique opportunities for EHR innovation. Because telehealth patients are seen online, there is the opportunity to capture more information before the visit to start building the note. Meanwhile, AI tools are emerging to analyze patients during a video visit, such as capturing vital signs and detecting certain diseases. It’s exciting to consider what the future holds for EHRs and the opportunities that support online care that is hyper-convenient and efficient and drives care quality.
Craig Joseph, MD, Chief Medical Officer at Nordic Global Consulting
A neglected area of electronic health record (EHR) innovation is a clinician-centered data visualization approach that goes beyond simple dashboards to create a genuinely intuitive, real-time patient snapshot. EHR interfaces often overwhelm users with massive data tables and graphs without context or prioritization. What if EHRs adopted design elements from fields like finance or even gaming, where rapid, high-stakes decision-making is required, to create visually engaging interfaces that summarize critical information and automatically highlight anomalies or trends? Instead of a linear data view, clinicians could access a modular, snapshot-driven summary that emphasizes what’s changed in the patient’s status since the last encounter or flags data points relevant to their specialty.
While EHRs focus on clinician-driven documentation, a “patient portfolio” concept could allow patients to contribute longitudinal health data, preferences, and goals, creating a more collaborative record. Imagine an interface where patients can upload lifestyle data, outline care priorities, or even set their own health goals—all of which would be visually accessible to clinicians. This approach would make it easier to address social determinants of health and ensure that care is aligned with patient values, supporting a genuinely patient-centered model within the EHR.
Aasim Saeed, CEO at Amenities Health
Electronic Health Records were created to solve one original problem: optimize billing in fee-for-service care. Because of how critical that function is to most revenue models in the US, they have evolved to become the default ‘operating systems’ for most US healthcare systems, in that almost every new function and capability a healthcare system desires must leverage and integrate through the EMR. Learning from robust ecosystems like PC and Mac Operating Systems and Android and Apple App Stores, EHRs should embrace this role as facilitators of a robust marketplace of third-party applications.
The pace of innovation for healthcare systems must improve dramatically, and any attempt to stifle openness and interoperability is a major risk not just to the satisfaction of patients and providers but to the long-term viability of the EHRs themselves. Oracle announced it would release a ‘built from scratch’ EHR designed to reimagine it all together, in no small part, because current systems have struggled to evolve and offer new technologies, capabilities, and user experience.
Andy Flanagan, CEO at Iris Telehealth
One key area of innovation that needs more attention is the development of standardized metrics for measuring the effectiveness of EHR systems across different health settings. While organizations track various data points, we lack clarity on best practices for evaluating EHR performance, leading to inconsistencies in care delivery. Additionally, bridging the gap between mental and physical health records is essential for creating a more holistic view of patient care. By prioritizing these innovations, we can deliver more comprehensive, coordinated care that serves the diverse needs of patients and providers alike.
David Metcalfe, Chief Technology Officer at Nextech
Technology experts must continue to learn how providers practice medicine and leverage the most appropriate technology to support this. A cardiologist practices medicine and navigates through an EHR differently than a physical therapist. We must stop applying technology in a “one-size-fits-all” manner, and instead, adapt EHRs to provider workflows. Providers need the freedom to practice in a way that is natural and efficient for them. As software developers, we must support that process and always stay close to the end user.
Ali Modaressi, CEO at LANES
As interoperability continues to become more relevant and important to the future of whole-person care, EHRs should prioritize their own ability to exchange comprehensive health and social care data. Healthcare providers are increasingly recognizing the benefits of interoperability for the populations they serve, and I expect they will rightfully demand these capabilities of their EHRs, making this a key area for innovation.
EHR systems should also adopt widely recognized standards like FHIR to ensure consistent data exchange across platforms while implementing user-friendly designs that simplify clinician access to external data. Additionally, developing robust APIs is essential for enabling seamless integration with social determinants of health data, fostering a collaborative ecosystem to further enhance holistic patient care.
Timi Leslie, President and Executive Director at BluePath Health and Connecting for Better Health
To realize the promise of health data interoperability and its benefits, providers should be able to rely on their EHRs to have “out-of-the-box” compliance with TEFCA and other appropriate data sharing frameworks, such as California’s Data Exchange Framework. To support a nation moving toward increased interoperability, it would be prudent and timely for EHRs to participate in the development of and contribute to frameworks, ensuring interoperability is a standard feature, not an optional capability.
Laxmi Patel, Chief Strategy Officer at Savista
The dominance of a single major player in the EHR market creates significant barriers to innovation, particularly by limiting the entry of smaller companies that may have breakthrough technologies. The closed, proprietary system restricts access to new tools making it difficult for outside organizations to test, refine, and deploy solutions.
Artificial intelligence and predictive analytics, which rely on interoperable data to function effectively, remain underdeveloped and inaccessible due to data silos. As a result, promising advancements in healthcare technology are stifled. An open EHR architecture with standardized data protocols would level the playing field, allowing large players and small startups alike to bring forward innovative solutions. Open access would foster a collaborative health tech environment, enabling easier integration across platforms and reducing the barriers for new entrants with transformative ideas. This shift could drive the kind of rapid advancements seen in other tech fields.
Ultimately, by moving away from monopolistic control and promoting open standards, the healthcare system could evolve into a dynamic, interconnected ecosystem that better serves both patients and providers.
There are so many great ideas here! Huge thank you to Vijay Adapala, EVP Global Supply Partnerships at Doceree, Rahul Sharma, CEO at HSBlox, Inc., Andrew Hines, Chief Technology Officer at Canvas Medical, Vijay Verma, VP of Product at TeleVox, Stephanie Murray, Senior Director, Epic Services at CereCore, Lyle Berkowitz, CEO at KeyCare, Craig Joseph, MD, Chief Medical Officer at Nordic Global Consulting, Aasim Saeed, CEO at Amenities Health, Andy Flanagan, CEO at Iris Telehealth, David Metcalfe, Chief Technology Officer at Nextech, Ali Modaressi, CEO at LANES, Timi Leslie, President and Executive Director at BluePath Health and Connecting for Better Health, and Laxmi Patel, Chief Strategy Officer at Savista for taking the time out of your day to submit a quote to us! And thank you to all of you for taking the time out of your day to read this article! We could not do this without all of your support.
What EHR innovations do you think should be happening that isn’t? Let us know either in the comments down below or over on social media. We’d love to hear from all of you!
No comments:
Post a Comment