Sarah Rubenstein writes in today’s Wall Street Journal about the Obama Administration’s appointment of Harvard’s David Blumenthal to be its guru in charge of rolling out its big expansion of health IT (HIT).
Image source: AP/Stew Milne
“As national coordinator of health information technology, Blumenthal will have at his disposal the $19.5 billion dedicated to health IT in the recent economic-stimulus package. He has headed the Institute for Health Policy at Massachusetts General Hospital/Partners HealthCare System in Boston…
“… For many doctors, especially those in solo or small practices, [Health IT] “conjures [an] image… of a waiting room full to bursting, a crashed computer, and a frantic clinician on hold with IT support…”"
“In the present U.S. political context, a bottom-up strategy for spreading HIT may be the only viable option,” they wrote, “but it would be unfortunate if this approach hardwired into our health information system the administrative inefficiencies that plague other parts of our health care system.”
The stimulus bill calls for the government to establish standards to help avoid that sort of fragmentation. Other methods to improve administrative inefficiencies include ongoing training and education regarding the new HIT protocols coming down the pike.
