Interoperability Summit 2022

Question Sets for Core Technology Segments

Prior to the summit, KLAS worked with a provider steering committee—affectionately dubbed the Fab 4 (see page 6)—to outline the goals of the summit, create initial question sets for each core technology segment, and critique the proposed methodology for measurement.

At the summit, participants were broken into groups based on their area of expertise. Each group was tasked with reviewing the initial question set for a specific core technology segment, and after the summit, this feedback was used to create finalized question sets for all segments except patient engagement. The feedback group for that segment determined that one question set would not be sufficient to encompass the wide variety of technologies used for patient engagement, so instead multiple surveys will be created for different subsegments within patient engagement. These question sets will be finalized at a later date.

Key things to note about the question sets:

The finalized question sets for all core technology segments except patient engagement can be found in the index of this report.

Finalized Methodology for Calculating and Displaying Ratings

Before diving into how results from the interoperability question sets will be displayed, there are a few important factors to consider.

Other Areas of Interoperability to Measure

In an effort to better identify and understand additional opportunities for future interoperability research, KLAS invited the summit attendees to fill out a pre-conference survey, which asked participants to select their top areas of focus for further interoperability measurement. The most common request was to measure provider organizations’ adoption readiness and actual adoption of interoperability technology. In prior research, KLAS has primarily focused on vendors’ efforts to drive interoperability forward, but much of the healthcare industry’s success with interoperability relies on provider organizations, who are ultimately responsible for what data is shared.

Other research areas that participants expressed interest in include payers’ willingness to share data, vendors’ ratings of each other’s willingness to share and provide access to data, and vendors’ efforts to enable provider organizations to better address information blocking—the last of which is included in the interoperability question sets (see page 7). Another potential area of measurement is the usability of interoperability for different end users; summit attendees specifically feel that physicians’ experiences could be used to determine how easily data can be shared and consumed. Summit attendees also want KLAS’ research to expand to other areas of technology that could be used for healthcare interoperability, such as AI, third-party data-sharing applications, and integration engines.

Once the initial interoperability measurement is completed, KLAS will have the resources to work on other potential areas of measurement for improving interoperability. The healthcare industry has an opportunity to collaborate and determine the best way to share data going forward by creating data-sharing standards. During the course of the summit, participants brought up many other topics related to digital health and governmental and regulatory changes. KLAS will continue to evaluate these topics as needed.

Where Do We Go from Here?

Looking ahead, KLAS will begin gathering the lists of 30 unique customer organizations from vendors to validate and collect data on these organizations’ experiences in the core technology segments (except patient engagement). Once data collection is complete, we will publish a report for each segment; publication of these reports is planned to begin at the end of 2022 and continue through 2023. After these initial reports, KLAS will revise the question sets and, if needed, reconvene the summit to determine next steps for measuring interoperability adoption and its impact on healthcare organizations.

Summit Attendees