As of 2022, 96% of hospitals were involved in some form of electronic public health data exchange, according to a blog post by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC). Yet Barriers to Healthcare Data Exchange Despite this high engagement, barriers to effective data exchange remain. About three-quarters of hospitals reported facing at least one obstacle to public health reporting. The most frequent challenge was the perception that public health authorities (PHAs) could not receive information electronically. Additionally, hospitals cited technical complexities and exchange costs as significant barriers. ONC data also revealed lower rates of electronic public health reporting among small, rural, independent, and critical access hospitals. Similarly, office-based physicians encounter difficulties in public health data exchange due to limited EHR integration. The 2022 National Physician Health IT Survey indicated that less than half of primary care physicians (41%) used their EHR systems to access immunization data from outside their organizations. Several initiatives are underway to address these public health reporting challenges and improve interoperability between healthcare providers and PHAs: Additionally, a proposed rule from ONC seeks to enhance public health data exchange further. The Health Data, Technology, and Interoperability: Certification Program Updates, Algorithm Transparency, and Information Sharing (HTI-2) proposed rule builds on existing certification criteria by: According to the ONC blog, “Together, these efforts will help address persistent challenges to public health data sharing by investing in public health infrastructure, establishing a governing approach for nationwide health information exchange, and advancing standards to support seamless electronic exchange.” Like Related Posts Salesforce OEM AppExchange Expanding its reach beyond CRM, Salesforce.com has launched a new service called AppExchange OEM Edition, aimed at non-CRM service providers. Read more The Salesforce Story In Marc Benioff’s own words How did salesforce.com grow from a start up in a rented apartment into the world’s Read more Salesforce Jigsaw Salesforce.com, a prominent figure in cloud computing, has finalized a deal to acquire Jigsaw, a wiki-style business contact database, for Read more Health Cloud Brings Healthcare Transformation Following swiftly after last week’s successful launch of Financial Services Cloud, Salesforce has announced the second installment in its series Read more