Source: Healthcare IT Today
As we approach 2023 it is amazing that interoperability, true broad-based connectivity between healthcare systems, looks like the Verizon heatmap back in 2005 when there was as much white on the map as there was red. Much like AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile worked diligently to provide coverage to everyone in the U.S., TEFCA (Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement) is driving the QHIN “network” to accomplish the same outcome. Depending on where you sit in healthcare today it may feel like 1986 or 2023. The breadth of connectivity, the exchange of data, and the benefit of both feels significantly different depending on where you sit inside the healthcare ecosystem. We are confident that this disparity in coverage will change quickly as QHIN’s, their participants and sub-participants see the benefits of nationwide coverage. Today nobody can seem to survive without their cell phone, tomorrow no one in healthcare will tolerate a disconnected system any longer.