1upHealth Chief Strategy Officer, Don Rucker sat down with Andrea Fox of @HealthITNews to discuss what needs to happen in terms of a national healthcare interoperability strategy.

Some of the key points discussed were: 

• Rucker criticizes the costly reliance on brokered protocols and outdated document architecture in the proposed Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement. He emphasizes the value of Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) in achieving true healthcare value.
• Discover the three essential components for advancing interoperability: abundant electronic healthcare data, a networked cloud platform, and the powerful data representation standard FHIR.
• At 1upHealth, Rucker’s role as Chief Strategy Officer is dedicated to leveraging these components, helping payers combine claims and clinical data while supporting digital health startups.
• Rucker highlights the importance of patience and the adoption of existing technical solutions like FHIR, OAuth, and Restful APIs. Additional technical improvements and policy changes in healthcare payment are needed.

Read part 2 in full on the Healthcare IT Today website