Health IT, Patient Engagement

Tweeters sound off on population health, patient ID

Does there need to be a universal patient identifier in the U.S.? Are efforts to promote population health and precision medicine aligned? Those are two of the questions taken up by participants in #HCLDR, a weekly tweet chat on healthcare leadership.

Does there need to be a universal patient identifier in the U.S.? Are efforts to promote population health and precision medicine aligned?

Those are two of the questions taken up Tuesday evening by participants in #HCLDR, a weekly tweet chat on healthcare leadership. Population health was the topic of choice, and 134 people took part, according to Symplur analytics.

Together, they generated more than 1,500 tweets in an hour and a quarter, which is why we are only going to focus on the first and last of the four topics moderator Joe Babaian chose:

  • Topic 1 (“T1” in tweets): How would you define population health? Is it time for a unique patient identifier?
  • Topic 4 (“T4”): Are population health and precision medicine aligned, or not? Should one get more public funding than the other?

The group included a lot of techies, and a few Trekkies.

At first, they grappled with the definition of population health.

Shrestha, chief innovation officer at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, is a prolific tweeter, and had a lot to offer during this chat.

The talk of what population health is led into discussion of the merits of a universal patient identifier. As MedCity News has reported:

The original 1996 Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) legislation called for HHS to develop a system of unique patient ID numbers as a complement to the privacy and security rules. But two years later, as critics raised concerns about identity theft and a Big Brother-like, government-controlled database, Congress voted to deny HHS funding to implement the ID system.

Some have changed their sentiments since 1998, though others believe there are better ways to address the issue of identifying patients for health information exchange.

Munro, a journalist who is a regular contributor to Forbes.com, brought up the underlying reason for getting patient ID right: interoperability of health data.

We thank #HCLDR co-founder Colin Hung for citing MedCity News.

Self-promotion aside, the chat ultimately was about population health. And organizations are promoting population health while individual health and healthcare are far from optimal.

Patients want to help, but can they the way the system is set up? Patient advocate and blogger McKinnon lives in Canada, where there already is a unique patient ID.

 

There was more disagreement on the fourth topic, whether population health and precision medicine are aligned. That made for some good conversation.

For the noobs out there, The shorthand “atm” is Internet slang for “at the moment.”

Meanwhile, author and healthcare researcher Vidal may have nailed it.

Others offered tips on how to get population health and precision medicine aligned.

https://twitter.com/janicemccallum/status/631275584144936961

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