By Matt Patterson MD – While health systems are facing the need to provide better outcomes at a lower cost, there is only so much that can be achieved through consolidation, incentives, and standardization. Most recognize that in order to continue moving the needle on cost, hospitals and health systems will require fundamental redesign in the way care is provided.
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By David McCallie – I have been honored to have served on the HIT Standards Committee from its beginning in 2009. As I reach my term limits, I have reflected on what we have all learned over the past six years of helping to define the standards for the certified EHR technology that lies behind the Meaningful Use program.
In a hearing convened by the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP), witnesses outlined opportunities to improve health information exchange, citing the absence of a nationally-recognized identifier as an ongoing challenge to matching patients to their healthcare data.
By John Halamka MD – The use of the term interoperability is being tossed around in ways that makes it seem like the test for obscenity used by Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart in 1964.
Connected health infrastructure is emerging as a binding agent for diverse devices and workflows, aiding diagnosis, monitoring and prevention in the healthcare industry. For such an infrastructure to be efficient, stakeholders must first ensure that interoperability and connectivity standards are in place.
By John Halamka MD – Every technology has an adoption journey. The classic Gartner hype curve travels from a Technology Trigger to the Peak of Inflated Expectations followed by the Trough of Disillusionment. It often takes years before organizations reach the Slope of Enlightenment and finally achieve a Plateau of Productivity.
Interoperability was one of the hottest topics at HIMSS15 due to its significant impact on what has been called the “Iron Triangle” of healthcare — access, cost and quality.
John Halamka MD – I’m in Washington today for the HIT Standards Committee and I will post the usual summary of the meeting this evening. However, I wanted to post a morning preview of the opening comments I’ll make a the meeting. We are in a time of great turmoil in healthcare IT policy making.
Driving clinical and operational improvements and enhancing electronic medical record (EMR) functionality will be the focus of health information technology (HIT) investments in 2015, according to the results of a new healthcare leadership survey released by Royal Philips.