Discussions and debates over healthcare policy never end, but one point is beyond dispute: Since their founding in 1965, our nation’s community health centers have grown to play a vital role in delivering quality healthcare to more than 28 million Americans¹.

During National Health Center Week, we take time to recognize the work that thousands of providers and staff do every day on behalf of communities across the nation.

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.

“The health of our planet relies on the health of its people,” said the 1990s environmentalist superhero Captain Planet. Captain Planet advocated for the importance of a healthy community for people to live happy and fulfilling lives. 

Health is described as a “state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity” (WHO). Community health, often overlooked, is essential to meeting this definition.

The CDC describes a healthy community as “one in which local groups from all parts of the community work together to prevent disease and make healthy living options accessible.” 

In 2004, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services introduced Hierarchical Condition Category (HCC) coding.

Evaluating patient risk is as old as medicine itself. As early as the fifth century BCE, notes a 2011 study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Hippocratic tradition focused on the prevention of disease through diet and exercise. 

But ancient wisdom works best when combined with modern technology.