Electronic data sharing between physicians and public health agencies rare, new ONC data finds

Dive Brief:

• Electronic data alternate between physicians and public health agencies was dismal even earlier than the coronavirus pandemic started, new authorities data illustrates.
• Fewer than one in five primary care physicians electronically exchanged affected person health data with public health agencies in 2019, in keeping with a new report from the Office of the National Coordinator. More than 70% of hospitals skilled not less than one main problem with digital public health reporting that yr.
• The federal authorities has a variety of ongoing initiatives to attempt and enhance the free digital movement of data between suppliers and public health agencies, together with a new ONC process power to modernize public health data methods that kicked off this week.

Dive Insight:

The coronavirus pandemic highlighted the significance of closing stark gaps within the U.S.’ public health infrastructure, together with the necessity for smoother data alternate between suppliers and public health agencies.

Overall charges of public health reporting amongst medical doctors has risen over time, with charges amongst main care physicians rising 5 proportion factors between 2018 and 2019, in keeping with the ONC. But the U.S. faces a barrage of public health threats, together with extra infectious COVID-19 variants and rising monkeypox instances, making real-time communication between physicians and these tasked with monitoring and stopping infectious illness outbreaks much more integral.

In 2019, solely 12% of office-based physicians within the U.S. electronically exchanged affected person health data with public health authorities, together with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the ONC discovered.

Overall, a few fourth of U.S. physicians didn’t know whether or not their follow electronically exchanged data with public health agencies.

Primary care physicians who had the power to electronically ship and obtain affected person data have been thrice extra prone to share it with public health agencies in comparison with physicians who didn’t electronically alternate. They have been additionally extra prone to seek for vaccination data exterior of their group, and report sufferers’ social and behavioral determinants of health data.

Meanwhile, main care physicians utilizing licensed health IT have been considerably extra prone to alternate data with public health agencies in comparison with these with out it, the ONC mentioned.

Public health reporting capabilities additionally different based mostly on EHR developer market share. The data temporary discovered medical doctors utilizing EHRs with giant market shares — Epic, eClinicalWorks, athenahealth, Cerner and Allscripts — had the best charges of digital alternate with public health agencies in comparison with medical doctors utilizing smaller distributors.

The ONC’s data temporary doesn’t dive into physicians’ total ranges of reporting. Much nonetheless happens by means of handbook, paper-based strategies. Agency researchers additionally mentioned it doesn’t replicate present ranges of digital public health reporting, which “may have improved during the pandemic.”

But low charges of digital reporting might be because of variations within the data totally different jurisdictions require, together with public health agencies’ lack of ability to electronically obtain standardized data from physicians, researchers mentioned.

Currently, a number of federal programs are in place to attempt and enhance data sharing between suppliers and public health agencies, together with the USCDI+ initiative and the STAR HIE program. CMS has additionally proposed a new requirement that clinicians collaborating within the interoperability class of its merit-based fee adjustment program for Medicare report on program measures associated to immunization and digital case reporting.

In addition, on Wednesday, ONC head Micky Tripathi kicked off work for the Public Health Data Systems Task Force, which is able to make suggestions for the ONC and the CDC to enhance public health data methods.