Standards for the collection, storage, and sharing of data have been important at least since the invention of the printing press in 1440. Just think of how a typical book is organized, with a title page, table of contents, chapters and sections, and perhaps an index. Governments developed data standards for radio and television in the mid 20thcentury to enable clear communications as well as managing the wavelength spectrum. Without the W3C and similar standardizing bodies, the internet would not be the flexible and far reaching economic tool that exists today.

We all agree that paper medical record systems should be a thing of the past. However, we still find ourselves struggling with a mix of hard to use electronic records systems supported by even more paper. Who hasn’t had to fill out a paper form when visiting a doctor in the last 2 years?Without a single consensus standard, today’s medical record systems suffer from poor to no interoperability, increased costs, and hard to assess security holes. The sunk cost of a single installation creates a barrier for health care systems to change to a better system and strangles healthy innovation in the field. Why are the payors sitting still on a problem which affects their bottom line? Why aren’t doctors and patients speaking up for better systems? It all starts with a consensus standard!

Text Copyright © 2018 Katrina Rogers