"Epic charges researchers to access the data that the same Institute has spent thousands of hours storing. They're not a good custodian of data... they're literally locking your data away and holding it for ransom." — Dr. Sidharth Ramesh
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Dr Sidharth Ramesh is a medical doctor, clinical informatics expert, YouTube educator, and co-founder of MedBlocks, a company dedicated to creating patient-centric digital health platforms and providing tools, products, educational materials, and services. His work spans healthcare data models, API standardization, and breaking down data silos to enable innovation across healthcare systems globally.
Key Takeaways
Legacy Healthcare IT stifles innovation: Current systems either lock you into vendor ecosystems or create unstable bespoke solutions that can't evolve with changing requirements.
Technical debt accumulates rapidly: When clinicians directly model software without proper abstraction or support, it creates systems that don't age well and require complete rebuilds when requirements change.
Data representation is inconsistent: Different systems represent the same clinical concepts (like blood pressure or medications) differently, creating data and integration nightmares.
Health data platforms offer a solution: By standardising data models and APIs, these platforms allow for consistent data storage while enabling innovation through applications built on top.
Global standards matter: Projects like OpenEHR with over 1,000 standardised clinical data models prevent reinventing the wheel for common healthcare concepts.
Headless EHRs are emerging: The concept of slimmed-down EHRs focused on data storage with standard APIs rather than locked-in workflows is gaining traction.
AI is accelerating the paradigm shift: AI interfaces are reducing the advantage of traditional EHR workflow designs, creating opportunities for more open systems.
Policy can drive change: Regulations like information blocking rules in the US have started to crack open data monopolies, though progress is still needed.
Where to Find Dr. Sidharth Ramesh
In This Episode
00:01 - Introduction
04:13 - How the healthcare industry stifles innovation
07:47 - Problems with bespoke IT solutions in healthcare
11:59 - Integration challenges of best-of-breed approaches
14:30 - Examples of inconsistent data representation
17:05 - The healthcare data platform concept
19:22 - OpenEHR and global data models
22:09 - Consistent APIs and standards
23:15 - The benefits of platform approaches
27:46 - AI's impact on healthcare data access and patient empowerment
33:49 - Challenges with AI in healthcare
36:38 - Why big tech companies struggle in healthcare
39:52 - The role of policy in unlocking healthcare data
44:52 - The mission of MedBlocks
51:28 - The future of MedBlocks
Referenced:
Medblocks Company (link)
The Innovator's Prescription by Clayton Christensen (Book)
Clinical Knowledge Manager (CKM) for OpenEHR (link)
FHIR standard for healthcare interoperability (link)
Contact Information:
If you have any feedback, questions or if you'd like to get in touch, reach out at jono@clinicalchangemakers.com
Music Attribution: Music by AudioCoffee from Pixabay
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