A Long Way To Go
The lack of interoperability between healthcare applications has long been decried in white papers and by blue ribbon panels. Efforts to define the problem and spur action keep piling up. Just in the past year, several organizations loudly bemoaned the state of the art. For example, in March 2014, the General Accounting Office (GAO) criticized the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for not setting goals and a timetable for better interoperability. The eHealth Initiative announced an “eHealth Initiative 2020 Roadmap,” a public-private collaborative intended to fully transform our healthcare system by the year 2020.” These pronouncements mostly echoed past findings.