The idea of interoperability in healthcare IT isn’t new, but there’s still confusion and misunderstanding regarding what interoperability really is.

At a basic level, interoperability means sharing data between disparate programs. But asking another practice or hospital for patient records isn’t true interoperability. Nor is logging into their system to retrieve those records.

True interoperability is when patient information can be sent electronically to the EHR.

Remember those family vacations when the family packed into the car and drove for miles and miles? Eventually, someone would say what was on everybody’s mind: “When are we going to get there?”

Today’s technology has revolutionized the ways that we access data, and that is particularly true in healthcare. With the growing popularity of health apps and smart watches, people expect to have immediate access to their personal data. That expectation has led to improved methods for Patient Engagement through advanced clinical integrations.

The internet can seem endless. From exactly one website in 1991, it has grown to an estimated 1.67 billion websites, according to Netcraft’s October 2018 Web Server Survey.

Although only about 15% of those sites are active, it’s still virtually impossible for most internet users to quickly find the information of most value to them. Fortunately, search engines scour the internet to find, organize and present relevant information. According to Internet Live Stats, Google processes over 3.5 billion searches daily — 1.2 trillion searches annually worldwide.

What does it take for a large and rapidly expanding network of neurological practices to treat more than 1,000 patients a day across nearly 50 locations? For starters, it requires the right healthcare IT partner, one capable of integrating thousands of patient records into a seamless workflow. That partner would not only offer industry-leading design and function but would also be on the leading edge of the interoperability solutions that are critical in today’s interconnected world of medicine.

The thousands of eClinicalWorks customers who came to Nashville this weekend expected to hear about improvements to the core EHR, see some new products and services, renew friendships, and have some fun.

Sometimes, to know where you’re going, it’s important to take a look back. Which is why eClinicalWorks CEO and cofounder Girish Navani included a 1998 screenshot of the Google search engine and a 1994 image of the Netscape web browser during yesterday’s Keynote kicking off the 2018 National Conference.

eClinicalWorks is excited to announce that Tushar Malhotra, Director for Interoperability Strategy and Business Development, has been appointed to the CommonWell Health Alliance® Board of Directors. Tushar has a decade of experience in the healthcare IT industry and is responsible for defining solutions and services for integrating the eClinicalWorks EMR with disparate systems and applications.

Although our 11th annual National Conference is still four months away, we are in full-speed prep mode for the big event in Nashville, Tennessee! We’ve been designing, organizing, packing and planning so our customers can enjoy an experience to top even the hard-to-follow 2017 Conference.

What happens when primary care practices don’t provide patients with the service they demand, including flexible hours? Someone else does.

The 2017 eClinicalWorks National Conference was full of excitement and announcements, as we brought together more than 4,000 medical professionals to explore the latest developments on the healthcare IT frontier. We debuted Eva, our virtual assistant, offered a sneak peek at V11, and highlighted what’s new with our core EMR and Practice Management solution. From advances in interoperability to improvements in Revenue Cycle Management and much more, Dallas was unforgettable!

That classic line from “Office Space” — “I’m going to need you to come in on Saturday…” — works great on the screen, but it’s usually not something folks like to hear in real life. Except this weekend in Dallas at the eClinicalWorks National Conference!

CEO Girish Navani paused, scanned the sea of faces in front of him at the annual Keynote and Product Showcase, and with a rainbow of paper charts displayed on the big screen behind him, declared: “We took your paper charts away. How many of you still have these racks in your offices?”

In an ideal world, every medical encounter would begin with the provider having the patient’s complete medical history. Every diagnosis. Every medication. Every allergy.

For now, we live in a real world, where information is often scattered throughout medical systems.

Can interoperability defeat the asymmetry beast?

In healthcare IT, the problem isn’t too much data — providers want to know everything they can about individual patients and patient populations — but how to make sense of it all. For many years, medical professionals have devoted countless hours and legions of people to sorting and sifting medical records.