The Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resource standard, commonly referred to as FHIR (pronounced “fire”) has a lot of people in the healthcare industry hopeful for interoperability between the electronic health record (EHR) systems and external systems — enabling greater information sharing.

As we move into value-based healthcare and away from fee-for-service healthcare, one thing becomes clear: care is no longer siloed to one doctor and most certainly not to one facility. Think of the numerous locations a patient must visit when getting a knee replaced. They start at their general practitioner's office, then go to the orthopedic surgeon, followed by the radiology center, then to the hospital, often back to the ortho’s office, and finally to one or more physical therapists.

Currently the doctor’s incentives are not aligned with the patient. If the surgery needs to be repeated, the insurance company and patient pay for it again. In the future the doctor will be judged and rewarded or penalized for their performance in what is called the patient’s “episode of care.” All of this coordination between providers requires the parties involved become intimately aware of everything happening at each step in the process.

This all took off back in… Read the full story at EMRAndHIPAA.com.