In The News: Regenstrief to make electronic health records more complete and accessible

Newswire:  August 26, 2016

DATELINE: Indiana

Article text:

Researchers at the Regenstrief Center for Biomedical Informatics  and the National Library of Medicine are pilot testing a new way to compile healthcare information electronically using HL7’S FHIR.

FHIR, or Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources, merges data from individual electronic health records with those stored in the Indiana Network for Patient Care, which is the framework for the state’s health information exchange.  

Titus Schleyer, a Regenstrief Institute investigator and professor of biomedical informatics at Indiana University School of Medicine and Clem MacDonald, MD, senior investigator and director are leading the project.

“What we are working on is a first and could have a huge impact on patients whose health information is distributed across multiple electronic systems – probably the vast majority of the people in the United States,” according to Schleyer.

FHIR makes it possible to combine information about a specific patient stored in systems developed by different vendors.

“For example, imagine that you as a patient can use an ‘app’ on your smart phone to reconcile the multiple lists of medications maintained by several care providers into one authoritative, current list,” Schleyer says. “And then, you can bring that list to your colonoscopy screening appointment for review by your physician prior to the procedure.  That is huge, which is why the federal government is also focusing attention on helping patients do that.”

Regenstrief have also developed one of the nation’s first electronic medical record systems, a health information exchange which has made Indiana the most health-wired state in the country and one of the country’s first computerized provider order systems.

Read the full article here.