The Tech Doesn’t Talk: Nashville Needs To Fix It

Two hundred thousand people die every year because of a failure to communicate.

A trillion dollars is wasted every year.

That’s how health care experts set the stage when they talk about one of the biggest concerns facing the industry today: a lack of interoperability.

Yes, it’s a big word. And it’s one that means something different to nearly everyone you ask. But interoperability — the ability for medical records and technologies to seamlessly share data in a way that improves patient care — is a problem Nashville’s health care leaders must get serious about solving.

So the most powerful names in Nashville health care are joining forces to do just that. A nonprofit center ramping up in Nashville has brought together a group of competitors — including Middle Tennessee giants HCA Holdings Inc., Community Health Systems Inc. and LifePoint Health — in an effort to set standards for health care technology.

With the help of government dollars and innovative enthusiasm, entrepreneurs and established companies have spent the past decade developing countless technologies meant to improve care. But without the buy-in of hospital companies, the industry’s been left with hundreds of innovators casting about in the dark, each cultivating their own proprietary corner of the market.

That’s where the Center for Medical Interoperability steps in.

Read more here as published by The Nashville Business Journal.