Six Pathways to Interoperability for Patient-centered Care | HIMSS

Internet searches. Friends with similar symptoms. Medical journals. When a doctor hands a patient a diagnosis of a life-threatening illness, that patient and their family often makes it their mission to learn as much as they can about the disease. That means finding and booking appointments with multiple doctors in the hopes of a cure.

With each office visit, the patient has a new set of notes. Often there’s conflicting advice about what to do next. Each medical professional is making the best judgement he or she can based on available patient information. The operative word here is “available.” Every patient-provider interaction generates some kind of record, whether it be physician notes, prescriptions, release guidelines or something else. Even patient- generated data, captured by devices like smart watches, become part of a patient’s overall health and data record and are integral to making the most informed care decisions.