{"id":98694,"date":"2014-11-14T08:56:23","date_gmt":"2014-11-14T13:56:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=98694"},"modified":"2014-11-20T10:38:36","modified_gmt":"2014-11-20T15:38:36","slug":"improving-the-states-electronic-health-records","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2014\/11\/improving-the-states-electronic-health-records\/","title":{"rendered":"Improving the State\u2019s Electronic Health Records"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Stethoscope_computer_shutterstock_143224873_crop\"<\/a><\/div>\n

Electronic health records are supposed to modernize health care, make it more efficient, and improve the patient experience. Some states have a pretty good handle on this, but Connecticut does not.<\/p>\n

One of the major shortcomings in the movement to electronic health record-keeping is the inability of different health care providers\u2019 systems to work together. If the information your primary care doctor has on file is in a format that the system at the specialist\u2019s office can\u2019t read, your health record is barely worth the paper it\u2019s no longer printed on.<\/p>\n

\"Minakshi<\/a>
Minakshi Tikoo, assistant professor in the Center for Quantitative Medicine at UConn Health. (UConn Health Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For Minakshi Tikoo<\/a>, a researcher in UConn Health\u2019s Center for Quantitative Medicine<\/a>, the ultimate solution is a system in which any health care provider can retrieve a patient\u2019s most up-to-date health record from an indexed server.<\/p>\n

Tikoo\u2019s work to use health information technology to standardize electronic health records across the state is backed by a seven-year, $13 million grant from the Connecticut Department of Social Services. The ultimate goal is to improve patient care.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe adoption of the electronic health record isn\u2019t the end goal,\u201d she says. \u201cThe focus is, how do we improve the care that we deliver by using these electronic health record systems or the health information exchange? How do we send messages from one place to another, for example from hospital to primary care physician when discharging a patient?\u201d<\/p>\n

The group of seven Tikoo leads is working on a secure messaging system enabling physicians, dentists, nurse practitioners, and certified midwives to exchange encrypted patient information online, enabling that information to follow the patient to the next provider.<\/p>\n

The adoption of the electronic health record isn\u2019t the end goal. The focus is, how do we improve the care that we deliver by using these … systems. — Minakshi Tikoo, Center for Quantitative Medicine<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019re focusing on is health IT solutions that are based on standards that increase interoperability,\u201d Tikoo says. \u201cWe have got to get this information moving. We cannot put it in packages and just put it in a box and never open the box. And we have to educate people about HIPAA, about privacy and security, about confidentiality.\u201d<\/p>\n

HIPAA is the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, the federal privacy rule that provides protections for individually identifiable health information.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to be doing everything we can to make sure the right information for the right patient is with the right doctor at the time it needs to be, so that actions can be made that help improve the care for the person,\u201d says Tikoo. \u201cOur job is to make sure that we identify the best technologies \u2013 technologies that are standards-based, scalable, easy to use, and modular.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tikoo also is working on identifying gaps in performance using clinical quality measures data, and improving the quality of care by using standardized health IT protocols.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe analogy I like to use is, it\u2019s like the highways,\u201d she says. \u201cIf you didn\u2019t have that infrastructure, you wouldn\u2019t be able to get to places in the time-efficient manner that you are able to. If you don\u2019t have the infrastructure right, you can\u2019t do the connections in a secure manner. You have to get the infrastructure right first, and then you have to work with the people to understand what it is that health IT can do for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Follow <\/em>UConn Health<\/em><\/a> on <\/em>Facebook<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>Twitter<\/em><\/a> and <\/em>YouTube<\/em><\/a>. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A UConn Health researcher is working to standardize electronic health records across the state and ultimately improve patient care.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":111,"featured_media":98696,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[179,1],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[57,2010],"class_list":["post-98694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uconn-health","category-uncategorized"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-24 05:39:12","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/111"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98694"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98694\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":98704,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98694\/revisions\/98704"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/98696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98694"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=98694"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=98694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}