Every minute a physician spends clicking between disconnected systems is a minute they’re not spending with patients. When healthcare data lives in separate silos—clinical notes in the EHR, images in PACS, lab results elsewhere—both care quality and efficiency suffer. These persistent IT problems have real costs and demand purpose-built technology designed for complex, data-intensive environments.
Let’s examine how InterSystems technology tackles specific challenges faced by IT teams and the organizations they support.
When Data Lives in Too Many Places
The Challenge: Fragmented Patient Information
A mid-sized hospital has patient information scattered across six different systems. The electronic health record (EHR) contains clinical notes, while imaging data lives in a separate PACS system. Billing information sits in yet another database, and lab results in another. When a physician needs a complete patient history, they must log into multiple systems and mentally piece together the information.
The InterSystems Solution: Unified Data Access
InterSystems IRIS Data Platform eliminates this problem by acting as a unified data solution. It supports multiple data models (relational, document, object, and more) within a single platform, allowing organizations to consolidate information without forcing everything into the same format.
A health system using InterSystems technology can maintain all these different data types in their native formats while providing clinicians with seamless access through a single interface. The physician no longer needs to log into six systems—they can see everything in one place.
When Systems Can’t Communicate Effectively
The Challenge: Incompatible Healthcare Systems
Picture this: A hospital acquires a smaller outpatient practice that uses a different EHR system. Now, when patients move between the hospital and the practice, their information doesn’t follow them automatically. Staff members must manually re-enter data, increasing both labor costs and the risk of errors.
The InterSystems Solution: Seamless Interoperability
InterSystems addresses integration challenges with advanced interoperability capabilities. The platform connects disparate systems by translating between different data formats and communication protocols.
The eHealth Exchange Hub—the largest health information network in the United States—demonstrates InterSystems’ enterprise-scale connectivity solutions. Powered by InterSystems technology, the Hub facilitates over 21 billion secure transactions annually and serves as the preferred network for public health agencies and the federal government.
In our hospital acquisition scenario, implementing InterSystems HealthShare would create a bridge between the two EHR systems. When a patient visits either location, their information becomes automatically available at both facilities, eliminating manual data entry.
When Analysis Takes Too Long
The Challenge: Delayed Clinical Insights
A healthcare analytics team needs to identify patients at risk for readmission to implement preventive interventions. The traditional approach would involve:
- Extracting data from the operational database
- Transforming it into an analytics-friendly format
- Loading it into a separate analytics system
- Running the analysis
- Transferring results back to operational systems
This process might take days or weeks, during which some patients who could have been helped might already be readmitted.
The InterSystems Solution: Real-time Analytics
InterSystems technology solves this problem through its ability to handle transactional and analytical workloads simultaneously. The IRIS Data Platform can perform analytics on live operational data without impacting system performance.
The analytics team can run their readmission risk models directly against current patient data, identifying at-risk patients immediately and triggering interventions without delay. This capability eliminates the gap between insight and action that exists in many healthcare IT environments.
When Security and Compliance Requirements Intensify
The Challenge: Regulatory Complexity
Healthcare organizations face increasingly stringent security and compliance requirements, from HIPAA to GDPR and beyond. Meeting these requirements across multiple disconnected systems can be nearly impossible.
The InterSystems Solution: Comprehensive Security Framework
InterSystems technology includes built-in security features such as:
- Fine-grained access control
- Data encryption at rest and in transit
- Comprehensive audit logging
By consolidating systems on the InterSystems platform, organizations can implement consistent security policies and more easily demonstrate compliance during audits.
Why Choose InterSystems Over Alternatives
What distinguishes InterSystems from other technology options?
First, its healthcare focus. While InterSystems technology serves multiple industries, the company has deep healthcare expertise. This shows in its support for healthcare-specific standards like HL7, FHIR, and DICOM, and its understanding of healthcare workflows.
Second, its longevity. With over four decades in business, InterSystems has demonstrated stability and commitment to its customers. Many healthcare organizations have been using InterSystems technology for 20+ years.
Third, its unified architecture. Unlike cobbled-together solutions from multiple vendors, InterSystems technology is designed from the ground up as an integrated platform, reducing integration headaches and performance bottlenecks.
Moving Forward with InterSystems Consultants
Implementing InterSystems technology requires expertise—both in the technology itself and in the healthcare domain. Organizations see the best results when working with experienced partners who understand both the technical aspects and the healthcare context.
Need expert help implementing InterSystems solutions? Henry Elliott & Company specializes in:
- InterSystems IRIS and Caché programming resources
- HealthShare and Ensemble implementation services
- InterSystems data architecture and integration
Contact Henry Elliott today to discuss your specific InterSystems needs and IT challenges.
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