As some of you may know, i have been building a cornhole set (bean bag toss game) for tailgating at the New England. When it came time to paint the set with the Patriots logs, i looked up the color scheme online. There were a number of standardized color formats (HTML, Pantone, RGB, etc) to get the accurate colors for the logo. But when i went to Lowe's to get the paint, i was told none of that mattered. No paints are standard, so each red, green and blue are different. Not even white is standard.
While this was a frustrating experience, it was only paint. With EHRs this lack of standardization can lead to poor patient care and increased medical expenses. Whether it is the ability to see notes from specialists, ED visits, or medications added by an urgent care visit, if the physician can't see the information, patient care can suffer.
EHR interoperability requires a standard language for EHRs and diagnoses. ICD-10 is a big step in the right direction for diagnoses. With a standard set of diagnosis codes, EHRs and HIEs can better talk with each other leading to better interoperability. But that will be only the first step. EHRs need to be able to communicate better with each other and until they do, full interoperability will not be achieved.
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