AirStrip Calls For Eliminating Interoperability Barriers As Part Of 10th Annual National Health IT Week

AirStrip seeks new industry focus on data access and delivery to improve care; annual IT awareness event launches today

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Oct 05, 2015, 09:00 ET

SAN ANTONIO, Texas, Oct. 5, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- AirStrip®, the leading provider of mobile interoperability solutions that enable care collaboration and healthcare innovation, is participating as a partner in the 10^th Annual National Health IT (NHIT) Week, which starts today.

NHIT Week highlights the ways that information technology improves both patient safety and the overall quality of care, reflecting the NHIT Week theme of "One Voice, One Vision: Transforming Health and Care."

AirStrip President Matt Patterson, MD noted the industry-wide need to unleash clinical workflow innovation through interoperability and mobility to improve patient outcomes in an increasingly challenging economic environment. However, the current discussion often focuses on the wrong things.

"This is not a technology problem. The technology we need already exists, but the challenge will persist if policymakers continue to focus on minimum bar sets of variables as a way to define interoperability," Dr. Patterson said. "Instead, we should demand and enforce how healthcare technologies must communicate: the specific vocabularies, document types and transport mechanisms that all vendors, especially EMR vendors, should be required to accept both inbound and outbound to access all data and rules. If we can clear that hurdle, then we will see a wave of workflow innovation that improves lives for caregivers and consumers."

Dr. Patterson added that events like NHIT Week can keep the dialogue going and move all parties – patients, providers, payers and vendors – toward a solution that puts improved patient care first.

"This movement needs to be driven by consumers and healthcare providers, in a way that forces siloed industry players to rethink their approach," Dr. Patterson added. "There is room for all when we collectively focus on care collaboration, and patients will reap the benefits."

Launched in 2006 by the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS), NHIT Week positions health IT as part of the overall solution to improve healthcare as a bipartisan, federally led, market-driven initiative. In 2014, 440 organizations participated in NHIT Week.

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About AirStrip

AirStrip® (www.airstrip.com) provides a complete, vendor- and data source-agnostic enterprise-wide clinical mobility solution, which enables clinicians to improve the health of individuals and populations. With deep clinical expertise and strong roots in mobile technology and data integration, AirStrip is empowering leading health systems globally as the industry continues to evolve at a rapid pace. Based in San Antonio, Texas, AirStrip allows health systems to unlock the full potential of their existing technology investments with a complete mobility solution that provides access to critical patient data across the care continuum. AirStrip is backed by investments from Dignity Health, St. Joseph Health, the Gary and Mary West Health Investment Fund, Sequoia Capital, Qualcomm, Inc., Leerink Partners, Hospital Corporation of America (HCA) and the Wellcome Trust. AirStrip's base of visionary clients includes HCA, Texas Health Resources, Tenet Healthcare, Dignity Health, St. Joseph Health and Ardent Health Services.

About National Health Information Technology Week
Now in its tenth year, National Health IT Week is a collaborative forum assembling key healthcare constituents—vendors, provider organizations, payers, pharmaceutical/biotech companies, government agencies, industry/professional associations, research foundations, and consumer protection groups— working together to elevate national attention to the necessity of advancing health IT. Visit www.healthitweek.org for more information.

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