A robust, holistic approach to data is important in any sector, but it's perhaps most crucial in vital industries like healthcare, where lives are on the line. Unfortunately, the healthcare sector lacks a universal data framework that would allow providers to share patient information efficiently. However, by implementing interoperability standards—methodologies and technologies that allow different systems to share and exchange data easily—practitioners can synchronize online health records, gain full visibility across a patient's full scope of care, and make more informed patient care decisions.

Sivachandran Selvaraj, an IT expert and Senior Architect at IBM, is playing a major role in addressing this challenge, and he's working to implement AI-powered application programming interfaces (APIS) into interoperability systems throughout the U.S.

Learn more about the push for interoperability in the healthcare industry and how Selvaraj believes AI can help enhance patient care.

Healthcare's Problem of Isolation

U.S. health data is currently scattered across 2,000 isolated datasets without a centralized platform or standardized guidelines for accessing or exchanging data.

This fragmentation and inconsistency puts health providers at risk of having an incomplete or inaccurate overview of a patient's health history, thereby compromising quality patient care. It also means that health professionals often must manually re-enter data into multiple systems, leading to major inconsistencies or errors in patient records. Additionally, the lack of a centralized communication interface makes coordinating care a difficult task for practitioners working remotely, potentially affecting the accuracy of their diagnoses and treatment decisions.

One solution being implemented to address this problem is the adoption of Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR), a standard developed by the non-profit organization Health Level 7 International.

This standard is based on the use of application programming interfaces (APIs), bits of code architecture that serve as a bridge for disparate systems to interact with each other. This allows multiple parties to create, edit, read, or share patient data under a centralized platform.

This system creates the basis of an electronic health record that contains all critical patient information—from official medical chart records to lab reports to data collected on a patient's wearable electronics—that physicians can easily access and use to make informed care decisions.

While the adoption of the FHIR standard has been inconsistent at best, one professional working to advance its use in global healthcare data management is IT engineer Sivachandran Selvaraj.

Sivachandran Selvaraj: Championing Interoperability in Patient Care

Selvaraj has over 15 years of experience as an IT specialist with a focus on cloud computing and data engineering. As a Senior IT Specialist and Healthcare Leader at IBM, his work involves developing APIs that conform to the FHIR standard and enable virtual consultations, remote monitoring, and secure access to patient records at nationwide Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

His work with the FHIR standard has led to multiple advancements in data sharing and interoperability. One of the most notable examples is the Patient Access API, an interface that works with health plans to direct all patient data to a public application. This API has been widely implemented, with 64% of health plans adopting it since its launch in May 2020, and it's allowed patients to have easy access to their entire clinical and medical information. Additionally, it earned Selvaraj international recognition from associations like The Business Fame and Indian Achievers.

But while these interfaces allow for easy data sharing, Selvaraj believes integrating them with artificial intelligence can greatly expand their capabilities.

Starting at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Selvaraj began to integrate AI features into his projects to improve the functioning of essential healthcare services. This led to the creation of tools like chatbots that patients could interact with, machine-learning devices that could analyze electronic health records and create customized treatments, and predictive algorithms that could detect potential future health issues.

One significant project that Selvaraj is particularly proud of is a remote monitoring system that collects vital data from hospitalized patients (such as heart rate and blood pressure) and allows physicians and patients to interact through a virtual dashboard. Implemented at various Medicare centers during the peak of the pandemic, this tool achieved a 46% patient adoption rate by late 2021, greatly reducing the need for face-to-face interactions and keeping essential personnel safe.

Selvaraj is also a recurrent spokesperson for IBM at Health Level 7 International events, where he frequently discusses the benefits of AI tools that rely on the FHIR standard. There, he discusses the benefits of AI automation features, which reduce human error in manual data entry, quickly analyze large datasets, and identify overlooked patterns in patients' symptoms.

The Future of Patient Care

Initiatives like the FHIR standard are actively improving healthcare collaboration and quality patient care—with experts like Sivachandran Selvaraj championing its adoption. Through his collaboration with healthcare centers across the U.S., Selvaraj's work is an example of how interoperability standards can lead to a more streamlined, efficient, and proactive healthcare system.