Q: The VA is planning to implement iEHR in at least two hospitals within the next two years – will 3M’s HDD be part of that?
A: We would absolutely love the HDD being a part of those deployments.

Q: What happens moving forward here?
A: Once we see broader adoption of the HDD we have a wealth of new tools to really drive clinical documentation and back-office productivity in terms of auto-coding. Once the new EHR system is deployed between the VA and the DoD, we think we can bring some new tools to bear that will take a lot of cost out of the back-office.

Q: Which tools are those?
A: A tool called 360 Encompass, which delivers four things today: at a ground-level, common terminology via the HDD, which then enables ICD-9 to ICD-10 conversion tools and the like; baseline clinical documentation improvement to help make sure care is fully documented in ICD-10; and auto-coding so the staff increases needed as we go to ICD-10, which will require somewhere between 25 and 40 percent productivity in the coding space to offset the additional coders needed for ICD-10; and then, finally, it delivers some outcomes-based analytics, today there are retrospective analytics around quality indicators, PSIs [Patient Safety Indicators], potentially preventable readmissions, potentially preventable complications.

[4 questions with ... VA CIO Roger Baker talks VLER momentum.]

By next February, we’ll be working predictive analytics into those spaces so when a patient presents a certain way and the care is documented, we’ll be able to work on predictive analytics around the likelihood that patient will be a readmission, or will suffer a hospital-acquired condition, for example. That predictive component will help with diagnosis and care planning.

Q: So might 3M make versions of those tools, like the HDD, available as open source components?
A: Open source is an idea, a business model shift that we certainly are interested in and, you know, we’ll take a look at. I don’t foresee anything in those specific toolsets in the near-term future.

Q: I’m envisioning this sort of solar system where HDD is the sun and the other tools are satellites around it?
A: Yes, the other tools are satellites around it. Our ability to open source those both technically and from a business model perspective are far more challenging. But we do have some other technology and content that we will look at an open source model for, things like an MPI [master person index], for example.
There are parts of our portfolio that we believe fit that model. There are areas where the cool part of that business model is that it’s going to spur innovation. Again, that’s something I think the healthcare IT space can use a lot more of. We expect to see that.

Q: What sort of innovations do you anticipate?
A: For me one of the fun parts of the model and watching that happen is there will be innovations that none of us thought of. We can’t sit down and think of all the crazy new ways people will use content and technology and be able to release that in a way the industry can pick up and run with.