Information blocking and longitudinal health records were largely left behind by laws like HIPAA and the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act, Dr. Gropper writes. He adds HHS left these issues “in-progress” under President Barack Obama. Instead, the department turned its focus on networked databases known as national trust frameworks, which brought state health information exchanges and other “uninvited middlemen to the physician-patient relationship,” Dr, Gropper writes.
The ONC’s first “high-profile” meeting will take place July 24, titled 21st Century Cures Act Trusted Exchange and Common Agreement Kick-Off Meeting. However, Dr. Gropper takes issue with the focus on “trusted exchange,” saying healthcare institutions are too diverse to accommodate patient-centered care.
“It’s time for ONC to treat patients and their caregivers as the primary stakeholders in health information interoperability. Let’s focus the new ONC on patient experience and outcome. Trust frameworks are not a solution to either information blocking or longitudinal health records,” Dr. Gropper writes.
With this in mind, he calls the July 24 meeting a “Step in the wrong direction.”
“Listening to the ‘health IT stakeholders’ is a prescription for advancing the interests of the health IT stakeholders instead of dealing with patients and physicians as the stakeholders,” he writes.
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