News Feature | May 11, 2015

HITECH Hampered By Usability, Interoperability Issues

Katie Wike

By Katie Wike, contributing writer

HIE Effectiveness Questioned As Vendors Align For More Interoperability

A study published by the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association found that, although the HITECH Act encouraged EHR adoption, usability and interoperability issues demand federal attention.

Forty-seven interviews with government, health policy, and HIT experts, as well as physicians, payers, patient advocates, and vendors from across the United States led researchers to conclude the HITECH Act has immediate needs which demand government intervention.

According to Fierce Health IT, it is true that HITECH has led to increased EHR adoption, yet many of the providers interviewed cited issues with usability when it came to computerized decision support systems and EHRs. They said these were “immature technologies” which according to iHealth Beat were inadequate in supporting multidisciplinary teamwork and incorporating quality measurement into care delivery.

Researchers from the University of Edinburgh wrote in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association that “a number of major obstacles need to be overcome in order to fully realize the potential of HIT and capitalize on the investments that have been made.

“In particular, experts highlighted the need to stimulate competition in the vendor marketplace, develop a coherent national policy to promote HIE and interoperability, and, wherever possible, align policy initiatives in relation to HIT with financial and structural reform efforts in order to reward quality rather than volume of care.”

Many respondents suggested CMS and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT require vendors to open their application program interfaces. They also pointed out that the agencies should encourage collaboration with small vendors and the medical informatics community. Policy issues mainly centered around further financial reform and interoperability.

“The HITECH Act has stimulated unprecedented, multi-stakeholder interest in HIT. Early experiences indicate that the resulting digital infrastructure is being used to improve quality of care and curtail costs,” concluded researchers. “Reform efforts are however severely limited by problems with usability, limited interoperability and the persistence of the fee-for-service paradigm—addressing these issues therefore needs to be the federal government’s main policy target.”