Chuck Christian, VP of Technology & Engagement, IHIE, Chapter 3

In today’s healthcare IT world, there’s a whole lot of talk about interoperability — and unfortunately, there’s also a whole lot of misunderstanding, says Chuck Christian, VP of Technology and Engagement with the Indiana Health Information Exchange. He believes that if the industry wants to make real strides in achieving this Holy Grail, it’s time to start clearing the air.

Recently we spoke with Christian, who has more than 20 years of CIO experience under his belt, about the difference between what’s being reported about interoperability and what’s really happening in the trenches. We also discuss the most common requests IHIE receives from providers (and how they’re working to fulfill them); how his organization is leverage the knowledge of students to de-identify data; the discussions he believes CIOs need to have with vendors; and why, all things considered, he’s still optimistic about the future of healthcare IT.

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3



* The critical role of care navigators

* Incentivizing interoperability – “We need to have some conversations.”

* Misconceptions about cost

* “It’s not going to happen in a vacuum, and it’s not going to happen naturally.”

* Taking control with vendors

* Workflow issues with pharmacy databases

* Reflecting on his days as an X-ray technician: “We’ve come a long, long way.”



LISTEN NOW USING THE PLAYER BELOW OR CLICK HERE TO SUBSCRIBE TO OUR iTUNES PODCAST FEED

Bold Statements

Even though the EHR vendors are not charging for CommonWell, Carequality and those type of things, there is a cost associated with it. Because they have the opportunity to bundle that cost in with something else, it can appear to cost nothing.

I think once we come to the understanding that there is value in having that data available within the workflows of the physicians, we can start seeing some additional outcomes.

If you don’t have an interoperability plan, go home and put one together, because it’s just not going to happen in a vacuum and it’s not going to happen naturally. It’s going to take some work to figure that out.

We have to make it easier for clinicians to get and use the information within their workflows. And the easier we can make it, the more often they’re going to use it. 

They’re getting better at measuring things like: is the information available, did you use it in the decision-making about the patient’s outcome, and did it have a positive or negative impact upon the patient’s outcome? That’s really the hardest part to measure, but it’s also the most important. 

Christian:  With the automation that we’ve been able to put in place over the last eight or nine years, we’ve created quite a bit of siloed information that is very important for that continuum of care that the patient should be getting. Who is going to have the responsibility of pulling that all together, if the data is available in a fashion that makes sense? And if you have an oncology event, the care navigators that are in some of the oncology units are absolutely wonderful resources because they help navigate the whole thing. I’m not sure that, particularly for our chronic patients and people that have several comorbidities that require a higher level of coordination, we’re not going to see some level of that care coordinator or care navigator. I think that’s one of the things CMS was trying to get in the incentive programs for primary care physicians, where they were get a bump in their reimbursement if they follow up on th...