Derek Weiss, as the deputy chief information officer and vice president of strategic partnerships at Regence BlueShield, works at the nexus of health care and the cutting-edge technology that is poised to transform our lives, including artificial intelligence, machine learning and digital data sharing.
In the Q&A below, Weiss says that a potent mix of societal changes, technological advances and innovative public policy is fueling a revolution in health data.
“2019,” says Weiss, “is poised to be the year consumers are able to truly own and manage their health information in a way that’s personalized, simplified, meets their needs and fits their lifestyles.”
What technology on the horizon will change how people access their health data?
DW: For decades our health data has been managed in silos, making it nearly impossible for consumers to access and share their own information. Now, just in the past two years, cloud technology capabilities have enabled organizations to consume and manage vast quantities of information in different systems, repositories and locations. Machine learning and artificial intelligence make it easier to ensure that consumers get their correct medical records without mistaken identity. And a variety of apps now provide user interfaces that deliver information efficiently and effectively.
Even more important, we are moving toward “plug and play” as a way for consumers to access their data effectively. APIs (application programming interface) act as a kind of plug that gives health care organizations a simple and scalable way to transmit data. The HL7 FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources) specification, designed and developed for health care use, is quickly becoming the industry’s API standard. This specification offers a variety of health care organizations, from medical records vendors to payers and hospitals, a shared method for sending and receiving health related data.
How has public policy changed to help health consumers?
DW: The federal government has been a leading proponent of expanding consumer access to data. Recently, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced changes to the Promoting Interoperability rules to give patients more control over their health data.
Also, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology has recently released a series of information-blocking rules to help consumers gain access to their data and prevent entities from interfering with the exchange and use of electronic health information. This interoperability extends to the U.S. government’s Blue Button 2.0 initiative, which provides nearly 53 million Medicare members access to four years of their data using standard API connections.
How has consumer demand changed to make health data more accessible?
DW: People born between 1965 and 1996 now make up 43 percent of the U.S. population. These two generations – Generation X and millennials – are coming of age with mobile technology intertwined in their daily lives, so it’s not surprising they approach health management in a fundamentally different way than previous generations.
A recent PNC Healthcare survey shows that millennials worry about the cost of health care, prefer retail clinics over traditional doctor offices and see their primary care doctor (if they have one) far less than baby boomers and other seniors. When they do visit the doctor, both millennials and Generation X seek efficiency. They look to apps to answer their health questions and manage their health information – driven by their skepticism of traditional institutions.
How is the market reacting to Generation X and the millennials’ expectations?
As these generations grow older and increasingly use the health care system, the trend toward digitization will rapidly accelerate and bring a radical shift in how health data is accessed, managed and shared.
Because the millennial and Gen-X populations bring with them a fundamentally different set of expectations, data is being accessed and used in completely new ways. Health care systems, payers, lab services and other clinical providers are beginning to offer more ways for individuals to access and use their data, with fewer restrictions. This level of access is being accelerated by API improvements, greater standardization across the industry and federal policies to drive interoperability.
