I’ve probably seen 20 different articles since the election talking about echo chambers and the idea that social media (along with the people we surround ourselves with) simply echo back to us what we already believe to be true.
The election made it clear that we do not do a good enough job getting outside our regular circle of trust to see what else is out there.
The same can be said of healthcare.
Health systems in the United States operate largely independent of each other. The workflows, care coordination, and even direct treatment of patients can look quite different, depending on which health system you are in.
Each health system determines what they think will work best for their needs and implements strategies meant to improve existing systems. Just like our own social circles, each health system can become its own echo chamber, bouncing ideas back and forth without new experiences that force a change of perspective and bring about positive changes.
Interoperability can solve this problem. Although it may not be the main reason people are excited for interoperability, breaking down the echo chambers of individual health systems will be an incredibly beneficial byproduct of enabling systems to work together and share more effectively.
Just like the many varying ideas on how to make America great, individual health systems all running their own experiments is a huge opportunity for discussion on what works and what doesn’t in healthcare. Unfortunately, the opportunity for people to learn from others is mostly squandered due to the fact that there’s no real, viable medium for health systems to interact. All the experiences, insights, and ideas a health system will ever encounter will remain confined within that health system.
In other words, they exist in an echo chamber.
With hundreds of health systems all around the country, each implementing slight variations on best practices, we have a vast array of data and experiences that we could draw on to learn and improve.
However, educating people about the results of your experiences is hard work, done through academic journals, conference talks, and random conversations with your aunt who is a doctor in Michigan (and likely has little sway in redeveloping system-wide workflows).
While undoubtedly beneficial, implementing valuable health system insights is incredibly difficult, as you not only have to go out of your way to read, listen, and learn, but you also have to convince your peers to change their existing behavior because “you read about what they’re doing at Kaiser and it seems like a good idea.”
So how does interoperability help?
Interoperability is usually talked about in terms of allowing data to be exchanged between systems to streamline care. Don’t get me wrong, I’m as excited as anyone to solve the interoperability problem—even if it would be limited to making my data available to the people and systems caring for me—but there’s a much bigger opportunity here.
At Redox, we are enabling third party applications to sell into health systems. These applications are trying to solve many different challenges in healthcare, from optimizing workflows to developing better cancer care plans. While we’re all very excited to see what these applications can do for our individual health, I’m realizing that the introduction of these applications is providing a valuable new perspective and opportunity for health systems to interact with and learn from each other in ways that weren’t previously possible.
Rather than being limited to one organization, these applications are spreading to many. They’re seeing the different workflows and experiments being run at different health systems first hand.
Instead of reading about new treatment plans in a paper, they are in conversations with the executives, the chief medical officers, the compliance officers, etc. learning first hand what works best. They are uniquely positioned to take that knowledge with them to every health system they enter, spreading critical findings and best practices. Perhaps most importantly, they are at the table when decisions are being made and are able to point the decision makers toward concrete examples of successes (and perhaps just as beneficial, failures).
This is a new wave of information sharing, powered by direct experience, rather than second hand accounts. By the very nature of their business model, these applications are breaking down the echo chambers and enabling a more direct understanding of how and why things work.
They’re changing the conversation from “I’ve read this” or “I heard about this” to “I’ve seen this in action” and “I’ve done this.”
The sooner we move away from our isolated echo chambers and embrace learnings and perspectives from outsiders, the sooner we can all benefit. Interoperability is at the heart of what makes this possible in healthcare and I feel lucky to be moving the needle forward.