Electronic health record vendor Oracle Health declared on Monday at the Oracle Health Summit that it will begin the process of establishing itself as a Qualified Health Information Network under the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement.

WHY IT MATTERS

Oracle's cloud infrastructure could make data sharing faster and more efficient for hospitals, clinics and insurers by reducing technology layers needed for electronic health information sharing, the EHR vendor said in the announcement.

"As we progress through the TEFCA QHIN application process, Oracle will continue to lead the industry in providing solutions that help reduce costs and complexity and improve the utility of information for patients and providers," said Seema Verma, executive vice president and general manager of Oracle Health and Life Sciences, in a statement.

Oracle said its EHI sharing capabilities are also being designed to handle medical imaging – data types that are not typically available in other exchanges. 

A founding member of the CommonWell Health Alliance, which facilitates record exchange for 171 million individuals, Oracle said it plans to continue to be a member of the exchange network and support other industry interoperability efforts throughout the QHIN process.

THE LARGER TREND

Many holders of patient information, from giants like Epic to statewide health information exchanges like ConnectVirginia, signed onto TEFCA in 2022, and it went live in 2023. 

Since that time, the Sequoia Project, the initiative's recognized coordinating entity, updated protocols to support wider use of the Health Level Seven Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources-based transactions, including procedures for electronic case reporting. The RCE released the second iteration of the Common Agreement – aka TEFCA 2.0 – earlier this year. 

Then in August, Carequality announced it would realign its interoperability strategy with TEFCA while CommonWell, one of TEFCA's seven qualified health information networks, announced new members and enhanced capabilities – like HITRUST certification – last month.

Although Commonwell began in 2013, the network worked with interoperability vendor ELLKAY to streamline integration and care-coordination workflows and provide a smoother onboarding experience for service adopters. Carequality, which launched in 2014, said it continues to fine-tune procedures to align with TEFCA where appropriate.

"Disrupting the existing frameworks of interoperability poses too great a risk on patient outcomes," Carequality leaders said in a statement. "This is why we are strategically and methodically evolving to meet the needs of our dynamic community now, while making a plan to converge with TEFCA in the future."

ON THE RECORD

"As a longtime champion of giving patients control over their data, Oracle Health continues to demonstrate its commitment to making data more available, useful and secure," said Verma in a statement.

Andrea Fox is senior editor of Healthcare IT News.
Email: afox@himss.org
Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS Media publication.