Billions Saved Through Device Interoperability?

The West Health Institute (WHI) presented a report before a recent hearing of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health in the U.S. House of Representatives. The report estimates that medical device interoperability could help save $36 billion a year in healthcare costs, as well as improve patient care and safety.

Device interoperability refers to the ability for medical devices to exchange information with each other and with patient data repositories such as electronic health records. The issue has been a particular point of discussion in recent years with the rise of smart and wireless technology. Security, privacy and accessibility have been major points of contention, as large, complex computer/data systems can be vulnerable to hacking, crashing, and loss of data.

The report identified areas of monetary waste due to lack of medical device interoperability such as adverse events from drug errors; redundant testing resulting from inaccessible information; and increased lengths of hospitals stays due to delayed information transfer. A lack of commonly adopted standards for interoperability has caused waste in device testing and development costs, as well as in the provider costs to integrate devices with electronic health records.

The bulk of the savings to be gained from robust interoperability standards—93 percent—will go to healthcare providers, according to the report. Payers will see 6 percent of those savings, and patients the remaining 1 percent.

The report was presented by Joseph M. Smith, M.D., chief medical and science officer of WHI, as part of his testimony outlining regulatory and policy changes necessary to create integrated, interoperable systems to improve outcomes, lower costs and create higher-value health care focused on patient-centered solutions.

“Medical devices need to share data, based on standards, so that they can better inform clinicians and help patients,” said Peter Pronovost, M.D., medical director for the Center for Innovation in Quality Patient Care at John Hopkins University in Baltimore, Md. “By doing so, we can both improve quality and reduce costs.”

The report advised that “to realize the benefits, providers, payers, medical device manufacturers and the government will need to collaborate and partner to promote the development and adoption of seamlessly interoperable devices. Industry trends are already driving providers and payers to converge and share risk through care coordination, clinical integration and improved population health management. Stakeholder collaboration is expected to provide a strong platform for accelerating adoption of medical device interoperability and realizing its associated benefits.”

WHI is an independent, non-profit medical research organization based in La Jolla, Calif.