John Halamka, MD, on Making Smart Investments In Health Information Technology: Core Principles
http://content.healthaffairs.org/cgi/reprint/28/2/w385.pdf
Over the past five years, thousands of public- and private-sector employees, many volunteering their time, have worked to advance the cause of interoperable, certified, secure electronic health records. As new federal funds become available, should we invest right away or wait for technology and policy perfection? Do we leverage the accomplishments of existing national organizations, or do we start from scratch? The time to invest is now, building on the organizations we already have. To ensure wise investment, I suggest guiding principles assembled from the input of hundreds of providers, patients, payers, vendors, government employees, and standards-development organizations.
No other industry has had such a mismatch between the sophistication of the technology being introduced and the lack of technological sophistication on the part of those who are supposed to manage it. Placing servers in clinicians’ offices and expecting office staff to back up, secure, and maintain technology is likely to be expensive, frustrating, and highly risky. Investments in EHRs should focus on achieving economies of scale through the funding of regional, hospital based, or vendor-hosted “software as a service” providers that provide Web-based/remotely accessible solutions that require very minimal new technology in clinicians’ offices.
