Will Healthcare Interoperability Issues Follow DeSalvo Departure?

The American Medical Association (AMA) believes that the departure of National Coordinator Karen DeSalvo leaves a “significant leadership gap” in the industry and hopes it will not cause healthcare interoperability issues. Late last week, DeSalvo announced that she was leaving her post at the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) for a position at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

That newly created gap could hinder the increasing momentum around healthcare interoperability, according to AMA President Robert Wah, MD.

“Interoperability and data portability are critical components for transforming clinical practice and improving health outcomes,” Wah said in a statement. “Evidence of that connection can be found in the Administration’s new Transforming Clinical Practice Initiative, which supports coordinated care and collaboration among physicians that require high-performing technological systems.”

DeSalvo’s departure is not the only among senior staff, which Wah explained could lead to larger issues. Dr. Jacob Reider, Deputy National Coordinator, also announced earlier this month that he was leaving the agency. Moreover, the ONC has lost Chief Privacy Officer Joy Pritts, Chief Science Officer Doug Fridsma, Chief Nursing Officer Judy Murphy and Director of the Office of Consumer eHealth Lygeia Riccardi all in the last six months.

However, Wah explained that the AMA recognizes the value that DeSalvo can bring to her new position. Additionally, he said that the AMA looks forward to continuing to work with ONC and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to continue improving patient care.

Interoperability has been a huge issue for the healthcare industry, according to Wah. Physicians have had to deal with “poor performing electronic health records (EHRs) that are not interoperable.” Without widespread interoperability, the adoption of new innovative care models will continue to be hindered, Wah said.

“The AMA has been calling on ONC to make the Meaningful Use certification requirements more flexible so that vendors have more freedom to innovate and tailor their products to meet physicians’ needs. We recently released a Meaningful Use Blueprint to outline ways to improve Stages 1 and 2 of the program and provide suggestions for Stage 3, as well as a framework outlining eight priorities for more usable EHRs.

The ONC’s healthcare interoperability roadmap cited privacy and security needs as top priorities. The agency said that it hoped to operationalize a common framework to bolster patient trust by addressing key privacy, security, and business policy and practice challenges to continue the improvement of secure, authorized health information exchange across existing networks.

Even with DeSalvo and Reider’s exits adding to the growing list of departing ONC employees, the organization itself remains confident that it will continue to move forward it its policy work.

“The policy set by Dr. DeSalvo is unchanged,” ONC spokesman Peter Ashkenaz told Modern Healthcare. “Lisa Lewis will implement the strategic direction that has been set. Dr. DeSalvo remains engaged in key initiatives like interoperability and other major policies.”

Lewis previously served as ONC Chief Operating Officer.