Health policy professional to study electronic sharing of health info in primary care settings

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality has granted an honor to a health and policy management professional at the Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health at the institute of Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis to study for the 1^st time the use and effectiveness of alternative techniques of electronically sharing data in primary care settings.

The United States of America has contributed billions on interoperable health information technologies, but there is very minor proof of health information exchange's impacts on utilization and on how it is utilized in primary care settings and practice, stated Joshua Vest, an associate professor in the institute of Fairbanks School of Public Health.

In accordance to Vest, providers have approach to 2 different health information exchange approaches to meet their information requirements.

One approach is referred to as "pull," which permits providers to query communitywide, longitudinal patient records. A 2^nd approach is "push," where key data, like test results, is automatically delivered to contributors.

There is a deficiency of evidence of the effectiveness of either the "push" or "pull" approach, Vest claimed. "Moreover, which approach to sharing data best fits into primary care settings is unknown," he claimed.

One aim of the research is to determine whether primary care providers utilize "push" and "pull" as complementary or alternative approaches to health information exchange, Vest stated. The research will leverage a novel data set of individual provider and staff behavior detected within an electronic health record system, merged with detailed measures of "push" and "pull" health information exchange usage.

"This information furnish a complete, detailed temporal sequence of providers' behavior, disclosing how each approach to health information exchange is utilized during a patient visit," Vest stated.

The research will also quantify the impact of "push" and "pull" health information exchange on possibly avoidable health care utilization, he stated.