There are lots of great ideas about how to use health IT and exchange electronic health information to improve outcomes and reduce costs in our health care system. The recent, unprecedented commitment of our nation to support the meaningful use of electronic health records (EHRs) has accelerated the pace of conversation. ONC and others have been listening.
Listening is critical because there is no predicting when the most intriguing thoughts and advice will pop to the surface. It could be in a hallway conversation, in testimony before an advisory committee, or in an email. It could also be on a blog. This is why we are launching the Health IT Buzz blog today.
With this new venture, we hope to create a forum for engagement. We plan to report on progress, and create an open dialogue among members of the health IT community. We intend to address a wide and diverse range of timely topics relevant to the “why’s and how’s” of efforts to support the secure and seamless exchange of electronic health information. We will discuss our ongoing work to protect patient privacy, secure information, and implement standards. We’ll also be using the blog to provide additional information regarding our new grant programs. And the conversation wouldn’t be complete without discussing the meaningful use rulemaking and incentive programs, clarifying our vision and addressing key challenges.
We want to hear from citizens, patients, health professionals, managers, policymakers, technology enthusiasts and technology skeptics. We can’t succeed unless we understand the wishes and concerns of the many constituencies we serve. So join us. Let us know what’s on your mind. Read and learn with us. We look forward to hearing what you have to say.
– David Blumenthal, M.D., M.P.P. – National Coordinator for Health Information Technology
Tags: health IT
With a proper health care and IT we will be able go to any doctor in the world and they can have access to all our records. This does raise privacy issues that need to be sorted out.
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:O So mush Info :O … THis Is he MOst AMAzing SIte DUDe…
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The problem with health records is that they are highly sensitive, and privacy and security become a major issue when moving to an electronic system, when security vulnerabilities can compromise data privacy. This the main concern I have about move towards EHRs.
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Does there need to be change to our (USA) current Health Care System, and should that include integrated IT support? Absolutely. Is patient privacy going to be a concern, yes, but should it deter our common decision to move forward, no. Lets identify these common problems with common solutions to achieve a better Health Care System.
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I am all for the healthcare reform but I just dont see how this is going to help us Economically. We have seemed to steady the ship but if/when a healthcare bill passes we could see some reprocusiions.
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Our healthcare systems monetary situation is paramount in continuing this country in a manner which is beneficial to everyone involved. I hope we can cut down on an already escalating situation!
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Where do Indian Tribes fit into ARRA’s HIT funding?
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It is a great idea to provide ability for disparate systems to communicate via NHIN-CONNECT. Government has done the right thing to divert ARRA funds for this initiative. As a 28 year old company providing IT services to healthcare industry, we are very excited about this and have several adapter offerings to integrate an organization’s internal systems to the NHIN backbone. We look forward to working with government agencies, providers and software vendors.
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Implementation of a true medical information exchange will and must become a reality. But as in every major every technological shift, the solutions will be invented in components – these components will become more and more integrated over time. The integration of these component solutions will not only require time but the establishment detailed standards. These standards will be required to not only allow the information be transportable but also useable in the receiver’s medical system. So how does one respond to today’s immediate needs and yet ensure that you have a strategy that takes you to that end vision? We at Emanumit believe that one of those components is a solution that easily plugs into ones own medical system and then allows you to electronically extract and package patient medical information (all forms of patient information – including images, video and voice) onto a fully encrypted CD with viewing security is a solution to some of today’s immediate needs. This solution makes electronic patient information transportation a reality and responding to legal requests for medical information not only secure but provides the opportunity to reduce costs. If you want to know more drop us an email at Iwanttoknowmore@emanumit.com.
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As an outsider looking in from the UK, i am fascinated by the insights that are being provided here. We have recently learnt that a billion pound NHS Health IT project could be abandoned (http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/economics/pbr/article6946336.ece) – it seems to be something that we just cannot seem to get right. I will be reading your blog with interest.
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Innovations in the health IT sector as far as technology is concerned is essential to improving the way we look after people and diagnosis illness.
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I would like to recommend that more effort and focus be put on the implementation of a UNIVERSAL PATIENT ID. If we want to be able to travel nationwide and have our health record “follow us”, we need to take this effort on. Relying on matching algorithms for our health records is not recommended, nor is it supportive of a robust national health record network. ~ Marisa Barbieri, Managing Partner and Lead Health Care IT Strategist. http://www.competsolutions.com
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Integration of IT and business entities for which they work is always a desireable goal. However, even a perfect partnership of IT and the business would not solve the problems with global healthcare. We have HIPAA and other initiatives, but there is no
global foundation on which to build, access and/or distribute healthcare data. We still live in an environment driven by IT vendor
proprietary standards. As the industry rushes to implement an EMR/EHR/PHR applications, we have dozens of vendors selling products all of which use a different database schema. So we have an IT group in a hospital perfectly in sync with the hospital from a business perspective, yet every provider supporting the hospital has their own unique EMR system back at their office which does not integrate with the hospital system. An in turn, the nation-wide network of hospitals all have disparate EMR systems which also don’t integrate. The best we can hope for in t his environment is a myriad of “interfaced” databases. If, on the other hand, DHHS tries to work with the industry to define a stardard “EMR database schema”, the healthcare special interest groups will cry foul or the large software vendors will push for unique extensions that render any standard to be of marginal benefit.
The bottom line is that it is nice to hold IT accountable for partnership with the business, but let’s no forget the bigger picture
of special interests, lack of standards and competing agendas.
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We need to integrate health care and IT. When this happens we can go to any doctor in the world and they can have access to all our records. this does raise privacy issues that need to be sorted out.
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Health and IT need to go hand in hand especially now in the digital age. We need to eliminate useless paper forms that only hurt the environment and go paperless. This should help merge the two fields together, while increasing information consistency
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Dr. Blumenthal, thank you for the white board to hear our voice. In Colorado we are initiating one of the larger USA proposed statewide Telehealth Networks under the FCC Rural Health Care Pilot Program. The Colorado Telehealth Network (CTN) – (www.cotelehealth.com) will connect broadband to over 350 Health Care Providers (HCPs) including all major hospital systems in Colorado, 95%+ of all hospitals in Colorado, Mental Health Clinics, Rural Health Clinics, FQHCs and Community Health Clinics. This is a virtual private network, HIPPA compliant and secure, connecting to the Internet 2 which will allow for a national tele-presence. CTN has applied for ARRA Stimulus funds through the BTOP subcategory Sustainable Broadband Adoption. There was a very short deadline for application (first round) with Notification to be given November 6th, 2009. We understand there were issues related to definition of rural, but is there a reason for delaying feedback on Sustainable Broadband Adoption (SBA)? It would seem the controversial issues that relate to the overall BTOP are not applicable to SBA.
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This is a very welcome sight (no pun intended) to the HIT Community. I look forward to reading about news, updates and general information right from the source.
On another note, there should be some mechanism to flag posts as advertisements or unnecessary banter for the site admin to review. Thoughts?
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Some form of certification is unavoidable, weather the current form is the right one, at least seems debatable. What providers must understand is that such certification is no guarantee of quality. In fact, it has nothing to do with it. It’s more like food labeling; it tells you what is in (or not) the product you are considering buying but says nothing about how yummee it is (or not).
So we are still missing an element to help non-technical people decide what is good, what is better.
What if the American Medical Association came up with a set of criteria that independent agencies could test against? Such criteria could include measurements about ease and reliability of use, or rate how well the program corresponds to the needs of various medical practices based, say, on size and specialty, among other things. Talk about a system designed by doctors for doctors.
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