CDISC Blog  filter by date: July 2011

Interoperability Town Hall and Showcase at the DIA in Chicago, IL

It has been said that “where fear is present, wisdom cannot be”. It is true that we do fear change thinking of the potential risks that it might hide, but no progress can be accomplished without change. It has never been easier for us -before now- where everything is automated and organized just the way we like it to be as in a futuristic motion picture! We did reach the day where with only one tap on our smartphones we can access email, get the latest bank statement and find the nearest restaurant not to mention that men have no quarrels on getting driving directions to find their way! Has this technology reached our healthcare system and medical records where we have one consolidated computerized source of information? I think we are on the right path! CDISC is the star leader in this domain, The Clinical Data Interchange Standards Consortium (CDISC) in collaboration with the Drug Information Association (DIA), Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE) and the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) has brought a state-of-the-art demonstration of the implementation of electronic health records (EHRs) to streamline medical research. This process represents a simple yet powerful means towards shortening the current 17 year gap in translating research results into clinical care decisions. This demonstration was presented at the DIA Annual in Chicago, IL on June 20 through June 22, 2011.

You will see more pictures from the showcase upon reading the full article.

More on the Interoperability Town Hall from Landen Bain, the Primary Organizer of the Demonstrations

The HIMSS Interoperability Showcase at the DIA Annual meeting took place in Chicago the week of June 20, 2011. The CDISC blog already has three related posts, one from Diana and two from Becky on the Interoperability Town Hall. Now, as the primary organizer of the demonstrations, I’d like to add my perspective, but it might make sense to read the other posts first.

By most accounts, the Showcase was a success, with good traffic, enlightening demos, a central concept. At one point an attendee asked me a question which will provide the focus for this post: “what does it take to put something like this on?” To which I answered “oh, about 5 years”. No, I don’t mean that it took five years to organize this one event. But it is true that this Showcase was the culmination of five years (or more?) of effort under the heading of CDISC’s Healthcare Link initiative. During this initiative, CDISC reached across the divide between research and healthcare to engage with EHR vendors in the sister organization IHE. The Showcase demonstrated the results of this effort. Here’s what made it a success:

More on the Interoperability Town Hall and Showcase at DIA 2011

My prior blog was based on notes that I took during the opening remarks from 5 FDA representatives and Dr. Fridsma of HHS/ONC, panelists at the DIA 2011 Interoperability Town Hall, which I moderated on 21 June. (If you did not read this one first, that would be recommended.)

After the Town Hall opening remarks, attendees from the audience asked questions of the panelists. I must admit that the questions surprised me---I had not anticipated the dichotomy. They fell primarily into two categories – 1) skepticism about using EHRs for research and the related regulatory constraints and data quality concerns; 2) requests from the audience participants to more broadly communicate the positive comments from the panelists to help move the use of EHRs for research forward. Clearly, there is more here than some may think….and by that I mean several things, which I will try to delineate further in this blog. [It did not help that some asked questions without having seen the Interoperability Showcase demonstrations. After being informed that they were missing at least half of the conversation if they had not seen the demo, it was reported that several went to see it the following day!]