An EMR Industry Q & A with Cora Alisuag, RN, MN, MA, President & CEO, CORAnet Solutions, Inc.
Cora Alisuag is the CEO of CORAnet Solutions, Inc., a health information technology company. She is the inventor of CORAnet technology, the software engine that drives CORAnet’s Personal Health Information Exchange (PHIE), allowing patients’ access to their complete medical records through mobile devices. She also holds an MN, MA, and healthcare industry speaker and serial medical entrepreneur.
From your position as president and CEO of CORAnet Solutions, what do you see as the next trend in the personal health record medical technology sector?
The emerging trend is Personal Health Information Exchange (PHIE) technology. This is a personal health record hybrid (PHRs). PHIEs are similar to PHRs with commonalities such as the use of mobile device based technology that meets HIPAA security standards. However, PHIEs enable direct access to any existing patient electronic medical record in any system that is running an open Application Program Interface (API). PHRs do not. Additionally, many PHR systems require users to manually populate their own medical data.
Will PHIE technology be impacted by EHR’s notorious lack of interoperability?
No. On the contrary PHIE technology promotes interoperability as patients/users can access medical records in a way that is much more comprehensive and wide open than the closed EMR portals commonly used by doctors’ offices as it is EMR agnostic. Despite their pervasive use, these portals are cumbersome and costly for patients. The portals also include the same lack of interoperability that plagues hospital EHR systems. PHIEs also fill the gaps in interoperability across networks and platforms without waiting another decade as well as hold the promise of providing individuals true ownership and control of their medical records.
How does a PHIE system deliver data to users?
CORAnet’s original PHIE prototype was deployed in flash drives that required readers and laptops. However, riding the digital wave of Healthcare 2.0 innovators, CORAnet migrated to a mobile platform when smart phones and then tablets came into the market.
In order to overcome the lack of interoperability obstacles that proprietary vendors have erected to health data sharing, CORAnet has developed an architecture that uses three major components for maximum mobile convenience—the CORAnet website, mobile clients and servers residing in the cloud.
To access the system, users create an account in the CORAnet website that provides basic profile information, identifies the points of contacts and locations of their medical data. It then quickly and conveniently downloads the applications to their mobile device.
As someone with a distinguished history of military medical contracts, and being the creator of the foundation of the Blue Button technology and serial entrepreneurship, what best-of-breed PHIE technology have you developed?
I provide a PHIE solution that covers consumers and businesses. The CORAnet Integration Server (IntegServer) is the heart of CORAnet’s technology. It is the primary integration layer that allows consolidation of information from different EMR systems (which have their own proprietary protocols) into one, cohesive medical profile that can be easily accessed. It consolidates and organizes medical data as a single personal health record (PHR), secured with 256-bit encryption to the patient’s smart phone, and/or tablet where medical data can be stored and accessible anytime, anywhere—online and offline. It automatically updates medical records which are then ‘pushed’ to the device every 24 hours.
For end users I have developed two solutions.
CORAVault provides access to disparate electronic health records, CCD, CCR, and HL7 files securely from different locations such as hospitals, clinics, pharmacies and physician practices. It is the ambulatory component that provides access to disparate EMRs from many different sources as a single, organized view in the patient’s mobile device (smart phone or tablet). This view may be accessed on demand, 24/7 even without network coverage.
This is a business solution and could make a very cool perk for employee retention in highly competitive Silicon Valley based organizations as we have recently seen with increased parental leave programs. As far as I know, no employer offers this yet. Employees’ peace of mind concerning health records will enable greater productivity and less time away from the office researching and chasing medical records when they need them the most. I predict this will be the next trend in employee benefits. It will be interesting to see who will be more progressive here; Google or Apple.
CORALink is a lifeline in a serious medical emergency. The common denominator is often that the victim is incapacitated, can’t communicate and perhaps unconscious. CORALink provides an emergency ICE (In Case of Emergency) button that can be prominently displayed on a cell phone that allows first responders to get immediate access to basic personal information with a single click. Key points of data that you would want EMR professionals to have, such as:
- A photo for positive identification.
- Name, address, phone number, insurance information.
- Blood type.
- Emergency point of contact information.
- Medications.
- Allergies.
- Advance Directive
These details are lifesaving. Before you are even in the ambulance, paramedics can transfer your data to the hospital so they can begin preparing for your arrival. Those precious minutes can have a huge impact on your chances for survival and help diminish the triggering of additional medical impacts such as a stroke or heart attack or worsen other injuries.
The CORALink notification feature can be readily used with the click of an icon— emergency contacts can be notified immediately.
In summary, the CORAnet technology features and benefits include:
- Users do not have to manually enter their data. The system extracts it automatically in real time from EMR open API sources (including frequent updates).
- Reminder features for medications and appointments to both trusted third party and the patient that can facilitate engagement in care.
- System is mobile, secure, and accessible anytime, anywhere offline and online.
- Excellent for people with chronic diseases who travel a lot and see many different doctors and care providers.
- Allows family sharing of data. Patients can share their data with anyone they choose, e.g., their doctors.
- Data are encrypted, username and password protected.
- Allows transfer of images such as nuclear and CT scans, radiology images and non-invasive procedures such as EKG.
- Data integrity is assured as data that come from the identified EMR sources cannot be changed by users.
How do you guarantee HIPAA compliance and privacy with so much data being transferred between Point A and B?
The uniqueness of the technology is that it is cloud based and data is stored in the mobile device and EMR sources only. This guarantees patient privacy and ensures HIPAA and other regulatory compliance, as the CORAnet servers do not store the actual medical data.
It is important to note that individual patients cannot change any source-identified data originating from the EMR system. This ensures absolute data integrity. However users are allowed to add or delete allergies and medications that do not come from the many different sources, but the system will identify it as self entered.
It allows sharing of data to different care providers when the patient visits multiple specialists by email, print or through a common EMR system. If the user chooses to share EHR data by email, the system creates a PDF file that can only be opened by using the system generated password. It allows family sharing of data (with consent), and with its notification feature, individual patients and trusted third party are reminded of their appointments and medication intake thereby facilitating patients’ compliance in their care.
