Someone once told me that interoperability was like a unicorn: everyone has heard of it, but no one has actually seen it. Why is interoperability so hard to come by? One major reason is that most healthcare software companies fear it when they should embrace it.
Interoperability is not only critically important for effectively delivering quality care, it's vital to the success of the software companies themselves.
Interoperability is the ability of health information systems to work together, within, and across organizational boundaries. It's not only the ability of one long term care software program to share data with another; it's the ability of LTPAC providers to share information with all participants across the care delivery infrastructure.
Should Competitors Embrace Interoperability?
A competitor stopped me at a conference recently and asked if I had time to talk. “Of course,” I said, “I always have time for you, friend!” We set the appointment for the next day, and resumed our convention duties. I thought about the meeting a few times the rest of the day. It piqued my curiosity: why did he want to meet? What did he need? Was he fishing, or just friendly?
The next day arrived. We sat in a neutral corner of the conference hall. We struggled through small talk and then he got down to business. He told me that he wanted to connect his software product to the data stream that QA Reader receives from our clients. He needed the data because his application didn’t have it.
Specifically, he wanted to advance his company’s product by connecting with our incident, accident, and near-miss data streams. He proposed a one-way integration, where his software would access our shared clients’ QA Reader data as long as the clients approved.
Seems like a good deal for him, right? Sure it is. But it’s also a good deal for QA Reader. Why? Let’s ask Bob Metcalfe.
Metcalfe’s Law on the Value of Interoperability
Robert Metcalfe presented a theory in 1980 that the value of any interconnected telecommunication network is proportional to the square of the number of connected users of the system. Basically, Metcalfe's Law states that the value of a network increases with each additional user.
Think fax machines: a fax machine becomes more and more valuable the more fax machines are present on the network. Imagine a world with only one fax machine - it would serve no purpose. Think Facebook. Think EHR. The more people that use a particular EHR system, the more valuable the EHR system becomes.
The same goes for interoperability. Improvements in interoperability also increase the value of the interconnected healthcare software firms.
In my experience, most long term care software firms want to go it alone. They engage in a brute force strategy of growth, lost in a dream world where they can become the dominant player. It’s not likely.
In fact, it’s highly unlikely. There are too many healthcare clients across an increasingly complex care spectrum with ever-changing information requirements. It’s impossible to create an application that can address all the needs of all the players in all the healthcare segments. The surest way of incrementally increasing the value of a long term care software firm is by interconnecting with complementary software products.
When Does Interoperability Make Sense?
There are many important questions to consider before embarking on an integration project with a competing software firm. Here’s an incomplete list:
- Is the data accessible?
- Are there other development projects in the queue with greater value?
- Can we be convinced of security in the data transfer?
- Is this something that our shared clients want?
We’ve begun bringing these questions to the QA Reader management and development teams. If we find favorable answers, then I don’t have to ask the next one: Is it worth it? Because interoperability is worth it.
Interoperability is critical to our clients’ residents, staff, and - as Bob Metcalfe showed us - to the software firms themselves.
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