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The Future of Connected Care: How Evolving Interoperability Models Impact Patient Outcomes · Becker’s Healthcare Digital Health + Health IT

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  - Hello everyone.
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  This is Erica Spicer Mason with Becker's Healthcare.
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  Thank you so much for tuning into the Becker's
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  Healthcare podcast series.
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  Today I'm pleased to be joined by Brian Dros Deitz,
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  the Senior Vice President and General Manager of Acute
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  and Payer Markets at PointClickCare.
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  Today, we'll discuss interoperability models,
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  how they've evolved over time,
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  and the effect that they're having on the care
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  that patients receive.
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  With that, Brian, welcome to the podcast.
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  Thank you so much for being with us today.
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  - Thanks for having me, Erica. Thrilled to be here today.
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  - Really happy to have you on.
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  And before we get into our discussion, would you like
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  to share just a little bit more about yourself, your role,
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  whatever you'd like to share with our listeners?
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  - Sure, sure. Happy to just set a little context.
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  So, uh, I, I oversee the hospital
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  and health plan business at PointClickCare.
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  Uh, that's a business
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  that PointClickCare has built up over time here.
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  Uh, essentially a nationwide care coordination network, uh,
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  that is entirely underpinned by interoperability.
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  Uh, so today we're connected
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  to more than 3,100 hospital systems.
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  Uh, we have roughly the same footprint in the ambulatory
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  space, uh,
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  and we're working with more than 200 different risk
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  risk-bearing providers.
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  Uh, on the health plan side, we're working
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  with every major plan, uh, across all their key markets, uh,
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  and again, really driven by interoperability.
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  - Fantastic. Thanks so much, Brian,
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  and really appreciate the overview of PointClick Care
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  and mentioning that it's essentially a nationwide
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  care coordination network.
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  It's hard to hear the term care coordination anymore without
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  talking about or hearing about interoperability.
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  So, um, to start off,
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  I was wondering if you could tell us just a little bit about
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  how initiatives to improve interoperability
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  across the healthcare industry.
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  How have they shifted over time?
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  - Yeah, so I'm, I've, uh, I've seen,
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  seen this movie a few times
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  and have been, been around the block having been in the,
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  the industry for 20 plus years.
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  And it's been amazing to see the progress over time.
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  You know, those that, uh, have not been around
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  as long would, would still probably lament with, uh,
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  with all the challenges that, that we see.
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  Um, you know, really interoperability has been a journey
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  for this industry as a whole.
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  Going way back, uh, to, you know, what, what were best
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  of breed EMRs.
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  Uh, there's been massive consolidation there.
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  There's been, uh, quite a bit of different policy that
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  that has been, uh, put in place as well.
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  Policy, I think, has really helped to raise the bar around
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  interoperability and data sharing.
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  And, you know, while, while that has been in the mix,
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  you know, call it the free market
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  and, um, uh, a whole variety of other different types
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  of data sharing programs have, have come up.
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  You know, when we think about interoperability today,
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  we typically see the, the HIE space as really one of the,
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  the key spaces, and that is one,
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  the health information exchange, uh, market.
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  That that is one that we participate in quite a bit,
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  and that is evolving.
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  It's, it's evolved tremendously over the past 10 years
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  and certainly has its, uh, its benefits and its challenges.
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  You know, as we look forward,
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  there are some new things happening as well with, uh,
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  new policy that's coming out as well.
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  So, uh, really interesting time where, uh, all
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  of these different interoperability
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  models continue to evolve.
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  - Thanks so much for the overview,
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  and it's interesting how you bring up
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  that piece about policy, kind of helping to raise the bar
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  or accelerate some of these efforts toward interoperability.
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  I think that's such an important, uh,
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  historical point to make.
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  And so considering the history
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  and kind of where we've, how far we've come
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  with interoperability, what new models can we expect
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  to see emerge in the near future?
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  I'd love to hear your thoughts on that.
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  - Yeah, so, so centering back to that point
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  around health information exchange, there is a, a,
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  a new model, uh, that has come out, uh, policy driven, uh,
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  it's referred to as, uh, TECA, uh, which stands
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  for Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement.
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  This is really a new foundation in, in a version two
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  or a version three
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  of call it nationwide healthcare Interoperability, where
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  whereby the policy is putting a bunch
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  of foundational fundamental elements in place
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  that will allow for much broader, uh, inconsistent
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  and timely data exchange between, uh, payers and providers.
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  Um, you know, it's, it's interesting to watch as this has,
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  um, you know, it's still very early days
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  and it, it is expected that it, it'll be, um, you know,
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  a long on ramp till, till we get all
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  of the expected value out of this.
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  But in, in a lot of ways, uh, you know, it,
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  it may have been, may even be viewed as burdensome by a lot
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  of the, the folks that are operating, um,
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  and sharing data today
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  because there are new standards,
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  new standards are difficult to implement.
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  Uh, they're timely or, uh, costly, timely, uh,
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  and, uh, resource intensive.
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  But really this, uh, this new framework should set the stage
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  with time for, um, a much more open market where,
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  where data is far more available, timely
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  and higher quality, uh, to those that are, uh, paying
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  for care and, uh, ultimately administering the care.
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  So early days for, for this framework, you know, we are, uh,
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  we're, we're, we're tracking it closely, uh,
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  and really interested to see
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  how this will actually impact some of the major challenges
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  that we see out in the market today.
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  Uh, certainly early days right now.
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  So I think, you know, some of those proof points are,
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  are early stage, but, uh, we'll be very interesting to see
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  how that, how that evolves.
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  - Definitely exciting to consider
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  how this could really change payer
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  and provider collaboration, care delivery quality.
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  You know, so many things come to mind.
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  Sounds like we're in that growing pain stage,
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  as you mentioned, but, um, in time it'll be fascinating
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  to see how this all develops.
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  So appreciate you highlighting all of that.
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  So kind of bringing this back to, well,
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  I know I said earlier, care coordination, it's hard
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  to talk about that without talking about interoperability,
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  and it's hard to talk about care coordination also without
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  talking about value-based care nowadays, which is something
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  that we know a lot of payer organizations
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  and provider organizations are
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  really shooting for right now.
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  So how can everything
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  that we've discussed really impact the ability
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  to advance value-based care?
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  - Yeah, it's, it's been a fascinating journey to see
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  how value-based care has evolved
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  and how the availability of data has in a lot of cases
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  made or broken ultimately success in those,
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  in those value-based care, uh, arrangements.
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  So, uh, again, dating myself a little bit,
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  but the early stage shared savings ACOs that go back 10,
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  12 plus years back,
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  they were hugely challenged in getting data
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  to make the right decision
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  for the right patient at the right time.
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  Uh, because a lot
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  of these different interoperability standards weren't in
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  place, uh, you know, certain vendors weren't open
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  to sharing data.
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  Formats of data were, were, um, you know, difficult to map
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  and to normalize.
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  Uh, so, you know, what,
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  what would show up in one system would show, uh,
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  in the format which it showed up would be entirely different
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  in a, uh, in a different system.
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  Um, all of these different, uh, you know, policy changes
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  that have pushed towards, you know, greater standards and,
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  and more interoperability, uh, between, uh, vendors and,
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  and different constituents in the, uh,
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  in the value stream here, uh, ha have, have,
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  have really pushed to, to open the doors.
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  You know, again, dating myself a bit, the, the, the ACOs 10
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  or 12 years ago had a really difficult time getting their
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  hands on understanding anything that happened
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  with the patient outside of the walls of their facility, uh,
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  or, uh, if they're fortunate enough to be in a, a,
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  a larger sort of regional system, what happened
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  outside of that regional system.
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  But when you think about, uh, having to see specialists
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  or seeing perhaps, uh, uh,
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  a physician while you're on vacation outta state visibility
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  into all of, all of the care that put
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  and should happen was, was, was not possible.
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  With the advent of these programs,
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  we've certainly seen greater incentives for organizations
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  to share, and now it's, it's really table stakes.
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  Um, as I mentioned, we're, we're working
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  with more than 200 different ACOs today,
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  ultimately facilitating that data share what, what that,
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  what that allows is really to make the right decision
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  for the patient at that point in time.
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  Um, and once that care is given, also ensuring
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  that the right next thing happens, uh, and
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  because we are facilitating that, that data share, we're,
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  we're able to then sort of check the box
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  that the right thing did happen, um, which all maps back
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  to quality measures, which are, uh, just a huge underpinning
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  of any value-based care program.
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  So, um, you know, in short,
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  the data sharing interoperability
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  and uh, really having that full visibility
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  of patients across the entirety of the spectrum of all,
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  all healthcare services is absolutely necessary
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  for success in a value-based care arrangement.
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  - Yeah. Thanks so much, Brian.
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  Appreciate that explanation
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  and also how you highlighted the importance of serving
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  patients at a point in time delivering,
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  I think it was delivering the right care at the right point
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  in time, uh, paraphrasing,
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  but it's incredible to think about the possibilities
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  that could come from that being the standard
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  or, um, the norm across healthcare.
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  So really appreciate all of the insights
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  and historical context and framing for interoperability.
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  Um, Brian, thanks again for giving us your time today.
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  - Happy, happy to be here. Thanks for having me.
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  - We'd also like to thank our podcast sponsor
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  for today's episode point, click Care.
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  You can tune into more podcasts from Becker's Healthcare
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  by visiting our podcast page at becker's hospital
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  review.com.