Faxing: The Backbone of Healthcare "Interoperability"

Devon Mobley

January 28, 2025

I once heard someone say they wish they could get rid of all fax machines. I disagree.

Healthcare has a notoriously challenging task: connecting a wide range of applications and systems across different organizations. When we think about interoperability, we imagine data flowing seamlessly—much like tapping a small button on your phone to send money. But healthcare involves far more complexity than a typical digital transaction.

Faxing Isn’t the Real Problem—Unstructured Data Is

Consider healthcare organizations, faxes, and documents as a network, where documents act like the “packets” of information traveling between providers. Clinical data is often nuanced and doesn’t fit neatly into standardized formats. That’s why electronic health records (EHRs) can feel cumbersome, paper workflows still linger, and busy staff sometimes find themselves yelling at their screens in frustration.

It’s easy to blame faxing for these issues, but the truth is that unstructured data lies at the core of the challenge. Faxes (or digital versions of them) remain the most convenient means of sharing vital, comprehensive clinical narratives—like referrals, lab results, and discharge summaries. We can’t just wave a magic wand and convert everything into a sleek, perfectly structured data stream overnight.

Meeting Practices Where They Are

It’s time for healthcare and technology stakeholders to accept that unstructured data—and the workflows built around it—are here to stay. Instead of trying to force-fit healthcare into rigid models or dismiss faxing altogether, let’s work with what already exists. By acknowledging the role of documents in clinical practice, we can improve data-sharing workflows without overwhelming staff.

  • Practical Solutions Over Idealism: Eliminating fax might seem like a noble goal, but if it doesn’t address day-to-day pain points—like backlogged referrals or delayed care coordination—then it isn’t truly helping practices or patients.
  • Building a Bridge Forward: By refining current workflows to handle unstructured data more effectively, we can create a smooth transition toward a more interoperable future.

Why Now?: AI and Automation

Often, the spotlight lands on the limitations of faxing itself—its age, its lack of inherent security. While those concerns are real, they don’t reflect where the greatest opportunity lies.

Large-language Models like ChatGPT, Claude, DeepSeek-R1 and Llama  are really great at working with unstructured data. They can ingest, summarize, and even synthesize complex datanformation, opening the door to:

  • Extracting key insights from unstructured documents more quickly and accurately.
  • Automating document workflows to reduce the burden on staff and cut down on human error.
  • Improve security by integrating safer digital tools into the faxing process without completely abandoning it.

By embracing AI and automation, the challenge of unstructured clinical data is transformed into a powerful asset—improving care coordination, boosting efficiency, and ultimately elevating the patient experience.

Experience the Calvient Difference

At Calvient, we understand your frustrations because we’ve been in your shoes. Our mission is to turn unstructured data from a headache into a powerful asset:

  • Practice Inbox: Streamline inbound documents—whether faxed, emailed, or uploaded—into a single, organized workflow.
  • AI-Driven Insights: Automatically identify and categorize key information, so clinical and administrative staff can spend less time sorting through piles of paperwork.
  • Improved Collaboration: Share critical data across teams inside of tasks and comments without complicated manual processes, making care coordination and referrals more efficient.

We believe that meeting practices where they are today is the key to shaping a better tomorrow. By embracing fax-based workflows and improving how we handle unstructured data, we can bring real interoperability to life—without disrupting patient care or overburdening the people who provide it.

Ready to Move Forward?

The problems you face aren’t new, but the tools to tackle them are. Whether you’re dealing with cumbersome fax workflows, piles of unstructured documents, or inefficient manual processes, Calvient can help.

Let’s talk about how we can turn your existing workflows into a smarter, faster, and more efficient system—one that truly supports better patient care.