Nine Insights Into Interoperability
Lots of people talk about data interoperability. But for people who don’t work in IT, the discussions can be hard to follow. In this episode of Quality Matters, four experts from outside NCQA make this technical topic seem both urgent and relatable.
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About The Guests
Aneesh Chopra, former Chief Technology Officer of the United States and current Arcadia Chief Strategy Officer, champions interoperability and data-driven solutions for health care, enabling better decision-making in value-based care.
Laura McCrary is the founding Executive Director/CEO of the Kansas Health Information Network, now known as KONZA. During her tenure, KONZA has expanded into 11 states and provides analytic and health information exchange solutions to providers, patients and health plans.
Marc Overhage has a 35-year track record in clinical informatics, during which time he has pioneered initiatives like the Indiana Network for Patient Care and led the development of population health platforms at Cerner and Siemens.
Dr. Abdul Shaikh leverages cloud technology and AI to advance equitable, efficient health care. With over 20 years of experience, he has held leadership roles at PwC, Guidehouse, NIH, and ONC, driving digital health initiatives and contributing to national health policy.
Episode Description
This episode of Quality Matters features highlights from the NCQA Health Innovation Summit panel discussion on data interoperability, held on November 1st in Nashville. Moderated by Arcadia’s Aneesh Chopra, the panel explored how to make health data accessible and usable for improving patient care. Panelists (Laura McCrary of KONZA, Dr. Marc Overhage of Elevance Health and Abdul Shaikh of AWS) emphasize interoperability is critical for quality reporting, care coordination and closing care gaps. Emphasizing trust as the cornerstone of data exchange frameworks such as TEFCA, panelists outline the need for alignment between payers, providers and technology organizations to ensure better health outcomes.
The panel unpacks technical and operational challenges surrounding interoperability, such as integrating fragmented data sources and transforming raw reports into insight practitioners can use at the point of care. Panelists compare HIEs and QHINs to highways, illustrating how these systems enable cross-border data sharing. But delivering actionable information, rather than overwhelming clinicians with reports, remains a challenge. Solutions such as Bulk FHIR and cloud-based technologies are highlighted as promising ways to help data reach its best, highest use.
The discussion closes with an appeal for greater collaboration and participation in initiatives like the NCQA Bulk FHIR Quality Coalition to test modern quality measures. As Laura McCrary points out, the interoperability challenge isn’t just technological—it’s cultural and contractual. By aligning incentives and fostering trust between stakeholders, health care can evolve from fragmentation to seamless, person-centered care.
We have standards and that’s great, and those continue to improve.
It’s pretty amazing the volume of data and the number of people that we’re able to access and share data between payers, providers, other participants in the health care ecosystem.
Timestamps
(2:55) Data exchange is all about trust.
(4:38) QHINs are the superhighways of health data exchange. HIEs are the on- and off-ramps.
(5:25) QHINs were created to work around geographic limitations of HIEs.
(6:12) QHINs’ challenge is providing information in a way that practitioners can use.
(7:21) To understand where data exchange can go wrong, focus on the interfaces between steps.
(9:12) Data exchange agreements often require legal expertise as much as technical expertise.
(11:13) The industry faces a big binary choice about how to organize quality information.
(12:46) Bulk fire and cloud computing are a powerful combination.
(14:31) Join the Bulk FHIR Quality Coalition.