Automation programs can collect and share specific sets of data from multiple EHRs. Automation can also aggregate the data in easy-to-understand formats, which is especially helpful for patients.
The healthcare community and the federal government are working toward adopting a next-generation standard for data-sharing that promotes automation. Health Level Seven International, a nonprofit standards development organization, developed the Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) standard.
Among other things, FHIR promotes interoperability and enables automated data retrieval from EHRs using standards-based application programming interfaces (APIs). APIs translate information between software programs and help them communicate better.
When adopted across the health information universe, FHIR will allow automatic data collection, curation and aggregation — in a way that makes sense to patients, somewhat like a self-service portal.
Each data element in FHIR can be retrieved and manipulated on its own, rather than pulling in the whole EHR. It’s like being able to buy one song, rather than having to buy the entire album.
Read our blog post next week as we learn more about easing up on information blocking with RPA or read our white paper today!
