Interface Engine Market is Diverse, But Use of Full Capabilities Lag

A new survey from integration consultancy Core Health Technologies gives a view of the current Health Level Seven interface market.


A new survey from integration consultancy Core Health Technologies gives a view of the current Health Level Seven interface market.

The company solicited survey participation on its Web site for two weeks in August, getting 1,350 responses from CIOs, CTOs, other information technology professionals and HL7 pros. Responses came from its client base and members of its LinkedIn group.

The survey finds diverse use of interface engines, with market leaders among responders being Cloverleaf from Lawson Software, Epic Systems Corp. and Point-to-Point. About half of respondents are using their interface engine for its initial intended purpose but acknowledge there are other capabilities not being used. A large majority expect to stay with their current vendor.

Support for the electronic health records meaningful use program is the current top integration priority, but awareness of meaningful use among HL7 professionals is lacking. About one-third of such professionals surveyed don’t know their organization’s status to achieve meaningful use and 4 percent don’t know what the program is.

Sixty percent of surveyed HL7 professionals have more than 10 years of health care experience, but almost half have less than three years tenure with their current organization. Still, one-third of the organizations do not have a staff retention policy, while 23 percent are developing a policy.

About 60 percent of all respondents say integration activities will increase during the next year. Full survey results are available at corehealthtechnologies.com.