RHIOs Should Exist to Enable Critical Data Sharing

I've been meaning to comment on this recent item, "Why RHIOs shouldn't exist" from FierceHealthIT. The editor, Anne Zieger, makes a case for her assertion that RHIOs should not exist because they have unrealistic expectations for trust among competing institutions such as hospitals. She states,

"I certainly like the idea of data following me. I love the idea of my providers cooperating. But at the moment, I simply can't see how this kind of data sharing can work in the near future."

Well, patient data sharing is not some novel concept that needs debating. Its already happening, although some do not even realize it. It happens by the fax machine. Patient data sharing is an essential function of caring for patients.

Replacing the fax machine, an inherently in-secure method of data exchange, by a secure electronic exchange is what a RHIOs should be all about The discussion should not be about whether RHIOs should exist, but rather, what is the best model for a RHIO in order to win trust among entities to enable clinical data sharing to take place.

We made a case recently at the recent MSHUG fall Forum 2007, for a RHIO Trust model, which has been very successful in gaining trust among our participants in SEMRHIO.

We just presented at Microsoft MSHUG Tech Conference

We just presented our RHIO project, semrhio.org at MS-HUG, the Microsoft Healthcare Users group Tech Conference in Redmond. Our topic was "Winning Trust and Minimizing IT Resources".

Roberto Ruggeri , a Senior Technical Strategist with Microsoft Worldwide Health gave a review of our presentation on his blog. Roberto was very helpful and we would like to give him our thanks

Eric Stott, our "famous" BizTalk architect, was with us and commented on his blog. Byron Byfield, a fine specialist in healthcare payor-side data analytics, promises he will have something to say soon on his new blog.

I was joined in the presentation by Kate Sullivan, who provided an excellent background on SEMRHIO and the current RHIO climate.

The topic was on how choosing the "right" Trust model for data sharing and minimizing IT resources by centralizing common services, there is a greater chance for getting buy-in from competing community hospitals to join to form a RHIO, since the two main barriers to forming a RHIO, trust and IT infrastructure can be overcome to a large degree.

Typically, cost and security issues end up being why many RHIO fail to go beyond the planning phase. In fact, several RHIOs, after spending anywhere from $500,000 to a few million, end up closing their operations. A few weeks ago, the Portland RHIO, and a few months ago, the very high profile Sanata Barabara RHIO.