Asking Population Health's Unanswered Questions

In August, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene PCIP will begin query tests with a community health center and a solo provider practice, says Michael Buck, Ph.D., the department’s biomedical informatics R&D manager.

In the future, Buck foresees Query Health protocols as likely to be handled directly by the vendor, instead of by a third-party organization like his. “My sense is that this is like the requirements that the EHR vendors are to build to the Direct protocol, and eventually they would be required to build to the Query Health protocol and offer that as a part of their certification [package],” he says.

Buck adds that what makes Query Health different is that it should be less onerous, with fewer governance and legal difficulties, because the data that is queried is aggregate data, which is not considered protected health information (PHI), and it stays at the organization’s site. From a technological standpoint, the system has a smaller footprint than a data warehouse solution, so it should take months rather years to implement, he adds. “We want to see that Query Health delivers value quicker and with fewer resources required and fewer governance and policy issues because you’re able to protect patient privacy by leaving the PHI at the site,” Buck concludes.