[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 technologys 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 ONeillAlcoa 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
Womens Hospital and Harvard Medical School, in Boston Massachusetts.
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Cheers,
Stephen
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