Pushing for Interoperability Between Different Providers

Marketing Approach and Data Exchange
Interoperability refers to the ability of two systems to exchange information and make use of the information that has been exchanged (Kasthurirathne, Mamlin, Kumara, Grieve, & Biondich, 2015). While the term is used interchangeably with health information exchange, they do not refer to the same thing. The two words do go together and one cannot exist without the other. In order for interoperability to occur there should be some exchange of information. However, this is not the only part of interoperability. Health information can be exchanged between different systems and what matters the most is the ability of the receiving system to understand the terminology and vocabulary that has been used by the sending system.
The marketing approach to encourage health care vendors to exchange data
The current hardships that are facing the industry when it comes to the exchange and sharing of data have to do with the vendor and provider competitiveness. EHR vendors make it hard to share information between different systems and care providers are also unwilling to share data with other care providers. To encourage the exchange of data the providers have to see the benefits that they will reap from the exchange. At the moment most of them do not see any benefits. Currently, hospitals are able to share data with other hospitals that are part of their health system (Cardoso et al., 2018). This demonstrates that the exchange of data is possible and what is mostly required is willingness. Therefore, in order to achieve data exchange, there is a need to ensure that data is shared by all the providers. Demonstrating the benefits that can be reaped by being connected to other communication networks like access to ongoing studies and other relevant information (Cardoso et al., 2018). This way providers will not feel the need to restrict or make it hard for information to be shared. Policy incentives are already in place that does encourage the sharing of data. However, the implementation of these policies should be stepped up. This way providers will stand to gain from data exchange and they will not seem like they are losing a patient when they allow another provider to access the patient data.
Customization of systems to fit with other systems cost money and this can be a limitation. Therefore, encouraging system vendors to develop standardized systems will go a long way in encouraging the sharing of data. With standardized applications or systems, it becomes easy for information exchange (Ullah et al., 2017). Providers will no longer have an excuse for not sharing data. Providers need to see how they can benefit from sharing data. Towards this goal it is vital that they see the data they will receive and how it will make it easy for them to also attend to patients who come from other areas or providers. Information sharing can improve the quality of care that is offered to a patient. A majority of providers have the underlying goal to improve the care they offer to their patients. With this in mind if they can see how sharing information will tie in with their overall objectives towards patient care they will be most willing to participate.
Increasing the interoperability of systems is another method that can be used to encourage the exchange of data. System interoperability will allow for easy sharing and exchange of information between providers and other systems (Kasthurirathne et al., 2015). Merely sharing information will not be helpful if the systems are not able to understand the information that is been sent. Therefore, to ensure that the data exchanged makes sense to the recipients there is need to implement interoperability of systems. The received data would be properly interpreted and inserted for presentation in a manner that will make sense. According to Mishra, Mohammed, and Fiaidhi (2016) pushing for interoperability will also standardize the terminologies used between different systems, which will make it easy for systems to understand the information being shared.
References
Cardoso, L., Marins, F., Quintas, C., Portela, F., Santos, M., Abelha, A., & Machado, J. (2018). Interoperability in healthcare Health Care Delivery and Clinical Science: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications (pp. 689-714): IGI Global.
Kasthurirathne, S. N., Mamlin, B., Kumara, H., Grieve, G., & Biondich, P. (2015). Enabling better interoperability for healthcare: lessons in developing a standards based application programing interface for electronic medical record systems. Journal of medical systems, 39(11), 182.
Mishra, V., Mohammed, S., & Fiaidhi, J. (2016). Towards Developing an Interoperability Framework for Healthcare Community of Practice. International Journal of Bio-Science and Bio-Technology, 8(5), 65-82.
Ullah, F., Habib, M. A., Farhan, M., Khalid, S., Durrani, M. Y., & Jabbar, S. (2017). Semantic interoperability for big-data in heterogeneous IoT infrastructure for healthcare. Sustainable cities and society, 34, 90-96.