The future of health IT over the next five years is in the development of these “glue” applications that allow the seamless linking of large, robust system, such as EMRs or laboratory applications, so that end users can utilize these tools in a coherent, patient-centric manner.
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The raison d’être of health IT includes four key items: 1) enhance patient safety, 2) improve quality of care, 3) foster greater accessibility, and 4) facilitate a reduction in medical costs.
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The appointment of a healthcare policy expert David Blumenthal, MD, rather than an informaticist, signals that the Obama Administration is serious about promoting the use of health IT through policy changes that impact how healthcare is delivered in the United States.
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The recent survey of over four thousand hospitals found no connection between computerization and reduced costs. In addition, increased computerization led to only small improvements in the quality of care.
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So what is “meaningful use?” Perhaps former Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart defined it best: “It is hard to define, but I know it when I see it”
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Today, patient information is actively being used to target market products and services to patients. Although the data firms utilize is de-identified, they employ reverse lookup utilities to reconstruct the information with patient identifiers.
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Much of the resistance to healthcare reform in Congress and beyond is based on cost concerns. Perhaps the success of healthcare reform is dependent upon the ability of comparative effectiveness research to show the way to cost savings that can fund the reform.
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Good clinical decision support tools can improve outcomes and cut costs. However consumerism evolves, it will surely play an important role in the delivery of health care. Only organizations that adjust to this sea change, through innovation and emphasis on consumer issues, will survive.
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Unequivocally, healthcare information technology alone cannot solve the problems our nation faces in delivering high quality, affordable healthcare to all Americans.
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