Posted on Behalf of Christel Fowkes, Regional Sales Manager
I just returned from the HealthAchieve 2016 conference in Toronto Canada, which is one of the largest and most prestigious health care conferences in North America. While reviewing the conference agenda, I was thrilled to see that Howie Mandel was a featured speaker, since I’m a big fan and one of my favorite TV shows is “America’s Got Talent”. However, I kept thinking how is he is going to speak for 90 minutes on health care. Given that he’s a Canadian comedian, I assumed he would simply entertain the audience with a comedy act given the proverb that “Laughter is the best medicine”.
As Howie began speaking to several thousand people, he said very loud and clear, “I’ve suffered from mental health illness my entire life… I was born in 1955 in Toronto, Canada, and having mental health issues and going to a psychiatrist was not the norm. Society has always attached a stigma to mental health issues…” He went on to discuss how important it is for everybody involved in healthcare today to have compassion and to understand the incredible impact mental health has on the overall well-being of the patient. He said, “It’s easy to tell somebody that you are going to take an hour off to go the dentist. But if you happen to tell your co-workers that you are going to see your psychiatrist for an hour they will think you are a crazy person…” Howie did have the audience laughing several times as he shared many stories about his ongoing struggle with OCD and ADHD. I found him to be heartfelt and hilarious as he took questions from the audience. One member of the audience was a CEO at a hospital and shared how he recently blogged about his personal struggle with mental illness and the positive impact his story has had on his hospital employees and the patients they care for.
One of the most important things patients, families and health care providers can do is to communicate and to be honest about whatever mental health issue they are dealing with. According to the World Health Organization, as many as 450 million people have some sort of behavioral disorder or mental illness. Mental illness isn’t a disease of the weak and it isn’t a cry for attention. It is a serious, life-changing illness.
During Howie’s presentation I started thinking about today’s healthcare environment as it relates to patient data exchange and interoperability. Often times, patients are too embarrassed or afraid to disclose their mental illness to their healthcare providers. As the industry continues to push for more sharing of data, it’s important that the clinical community has the necessary physical and mental health background on its patients.
In keeping with meaningful use requirements, the Direct standard is being used to exchange health data in a secure manner. However, in order for clinicians to best utilize this data, they should probably know if the patient is suffering from any underlying mental health issues.
Those of us in healthcare IT can keep up with all of the communication protocols and emerging health IT standards, such Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR), but at the end of the day, it’s critical for clinicians to receive not only secure data but comprehensive data including mental health as well.
By the end of 2016, it is estimated that healthcare organizations connected to Direct Trust Health Information Service Providers (HISPs) will increase by 62 percent over the previous year. As Interoperability and Connectivity continue to drive health care organizations to share more patient data, my sincere hope is that people like Howie will continue to drive and motivate others to share their mental health struggles and not be afraid to share their data with others.
