Liberate Health Data and Escape the EHR Trap | Dr Sidharth Ramesh (Medblocks Founder)

Clinical Changemakers

"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

Listen now on Apple, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.

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

* LinkedIn

* YouTube

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 [email protected]

Music Attribution: Music by AudioCoffee from Pixabay

🙏 Hi, Jono here - if you're finding value in Clinical Changemakers, please share this episode with a colleague who's interested in healthcare innovation. Thank you for your support!

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.clinicalchangemakers.com