[LINK] Unfulfilled Promises Of Health Information Technology

stephen at melbpc.org.au stephen at melbpc.org.au
Sun Jan 13 00:08:27 AEDT 2013


Unfulfilled Promises Of Health Information Technology

By Arthur L. Kellermann (1) and Spencer S. Jones (2)
http://content.healthaffairs.org/content/32/1/63.abstract

Abstract

A team of RAND Corporation researchers projected in 2005 that rapid 
adoption of health information technology (IT) could save the United 
States more than $81 billion annually. 

Seven years later the empirical data on the technology’s impact on health 
care efficiency and safety are mixed, and annual health care expenditures 
in the United States have grown by $800 billion. 

In our view, the disappointing performance of health IT to date can be 
largely attributed to several factors: sluggish adoption of health IT 
systems, coupled with the choice of systems that are neither 
interoperable nor easy to use; and the failure of health care providers 
and institutions to re-engineer care processes to reap the full benefits 
of health IT. 

We believe that the original promise of health IT can be met if the 
systems are redesigned to address these flaws by creating more -
standardized systems that are easier to use, are truly interoperable, and 
afford patients more access to and control over their health data. 

Providers must do their part by reengineering care processes to take full 
advantage of efficiencies offered by health IT, in the context of 
redesigned payment models that favor value over volume. 


(1) Arthur L. Kellermann (ALK at rand.org) is the Paul O’Neill–Alcoa Chair
    in Policy Analysis at the RAND Corporation in Arlington, Virginia. 
(2) Spencer S. Jones is an information scientist at RAND and an
    instructor in the Division of General Internal Medicine, Brigham and
    Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, in Boston Massachusetts.

--
Cheers,
Stephen



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