From Connected to Coordinated

“I wish it was harder to get my medical records from my providers," said no one ever.

In the U.S., the average patient sees almost 20 different providers throughout their life, not to mention visits to different pharmacies, labs, and hospitals. I’ve lived all over the U.S., so my personal health data also lives in different places—in different EHRs, in different doctors’ offices, and with different health plans. We have our mail forwarded to a new address, and take important personal documents with us, but we don’t have the ability to do the same with our healthcare data. Even if you haven’t moved, chances are your personal health data likely lives in multiple places too. But it’s pretty simple: where we go, our data must follow.

Imagine a world where personal healthcare data resided in one portable central record that included all your medical information and history—visits to different providers; test results and imaging reports from different labs; and medications prescribed by different doctors filled at different pharmacies. We shouldn’t have to imagine this in 2022—connecting healthcare data is a reality now.

When the pandemic hit, we saw how quickly healthcare pivoted, there was no other option. Telehealth visits became the norm, not the exception, and providers and payers had to work together like never before to provide virtually connected care. But connected care and coordinated care are not the same thing. When I talk with colleagues about unifying patient data, we discuss the benefits to providers, health plans, and biopharma. After decades in healthcare, it’s the reason I came to Innovaccer—my “why.”

Ultimately, we serve patients. They are our “why.” Putting patients in the center of the healthcare ecosystem means more than connecting providers and health plans to use data to get insights for more specialized care, it’s a culture shift to working with patients to understand what their concerns are. It’s about bringing patients into the conversation and putting them back in charge of their own care.

Throughout my career, I’ve seen firsthand how this disjointed data model affects all stakeholders. I’ve seen what is broken but haven’t always had the tools at my disposal to help fix the problem. But that was then. There’s never been a better time to be in healthcare than right now. At Innovaccer, we have the tools to connect the dots, and bring patient and member data to every touchpoint throughout their healthcare journey, not only to alleviate frustrations, but to proactively improve care, reduce costs, and save valuable time and resources. Now is the time we can coordinate all aspects of patient data for improved care.