Just Get Connected Already

Paul L Wilder, Executive Director of the CommonWell Health Alliance and Liz Buckle, Director of Product, discuss CommonWell's vision, achievements, and plans for the future.  Plus, Wilder shares what he was hearing about the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement (TEFCA) at the HIMSS 2023 annual conference and offers up a few takeaways.  Buckle also shares her experience at the Interop Showcase and details of the recent CommonWell FHIR Connectathon where CommonWell members leveraged FHIR to improve interoperability. FHIR, the API for automated data sharing, is mature and being adopted. This more recent standard makes trust automatable as well. To describe the current situation in health care, Wilder asked us to imagine if a retailer had to call your bank every time you made a credit card purchase. Wilder also dove into his experience with HIEs and how connectivity is key to public health and in preparation for future pandemics or other emergencies.  Buckle shared her experience from working for a founding member of CommonWell to becoming a full time employee in her role as Director of Product.  She aptly pointed out the importance of ensuring women and other diverse voices are in these efforts for the simple reason that we are all consumers of healthcare. She also pointed out how encouraging it was to see an even split of men and women in a meeting with candidate QHINs and federal partners. Wilder added that it is usually the mothers who carry the burden of tracking and managing health journeys for their family. The mom is the one who knows how hard it is to access elusive data and how important data sharing is. Learn more about CommonWell Health Alliance: https://www.commonwellalliance.org/ Find more great health IT content: https://www.healthcareittoday.com/