Healthcare IT News - February 2009 - (Page 8) 8 Healthcare IT News ■ healthcare IT was talking about the tipping point when New Yorker writer Malcolm Gladwell published his book by the same name in 2009. Only recently has the talk petered out. News alert: The tipping point has arrived. More heavy lifting ahead. Former Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt put some of the cornerstones in place when he built the American Health Information Community, or AHIC, now called the National eHealth Collaborative. The government established the Office of the National Coordinator for healthcare information technology (ONC) EVERYONE IN The tipping point has arrived problem and have it resolve itself. CIOs and systems analysts always say “deal with the processes first, then technology.” Joseph Kvedar, MD, the founder and director of the Center for Connected Health in Boston, whose daily work is to innovate and to encourage others to do the same, noted recently in a letter to President Obama Bernie monegain that he and others editor were concerned that the government might put too much emphasis on EMrs to the exclusion of other measures that would help transform healthcare. “While EMrs are a critically important technology to improve quality, they support current workflow and reimbursement models that are tragically flawed and provide no incentive to rein in costs,” Kvedar wrote following one of the many community discussions about healthcare February 2009 www.HealthcareITNews.com MY TWO CENTS “we hope Obama and Congress feel a sense of urgency – and, yes, the tipping point. it has to be on the front burner.” and the Certification Commission for Healthcare IT (CCHIT). That constitutes a foundation, but there’s so much yet to do. Uptake of healthcare IT has been slow, and while there are many serious efforts at interoperability and data exchange, which most experts say will provide the real value of digital records, the connections remain regional. The effort that needs to be put forth now is in solving problems, such as: ■ How will we connect those small exchanges into one countrywide network so that records from California can be accessed by a hospital in Maine? And how soon can the nationwide network become reality? ■ How will we ensure privacy and prevent the associated risk of medical identity theft? ■ How will we distribute the money for healthcare IT – $20B in the proposed stimulus package – to make it most effective? No one expects to throw money at a that occurred in December. Kvedar is not advocating sticking to paper records. It’s another way of saying, “processes first.” He calls for a broad “policy palette” to help consumers and patients take ownership of their health. The fact that Obama and his healthcare team called for community discussions on healthcare and invited the discussion groups to offer the ideas born of those discussions is a good sign the White House will approach healthcare with a broad palette. We hope Obama and Congress will also feel a sense of urgency – and, yes, the tipping point. IT has to be on the front burner. As Verizon Communications CEO Ivan Seidenberg put it in a recent Business roundtable news briefing: “The fact is that we just can’t wait any longer for health IT. The power of technology has transformed virtually every other sector of our economy.” For healthcare, IT is the right medicine at the right time. MoRe at HealthcareITNews.com e Connect: MoNegaIN 0209 www.HealthcareITNews.com Published in partnership with 71 Pineland Drive, Suite 203 New Gloucester, ME 04260 T (207) 688-6270 F (207) 688-6273 Neil Rouda neil.rouda@medtechpublishing.com MedTech Publishing Company PUBLISHER EDITORIAL Jack Beaudoin, Editorial Director jack.beaudoin@medtechpublishing.com Patty Enrado, Contributing Editor patty.enrado@medtechpublishing.com Diana Manos, Senior Editor diana.manos@medtechpublishing.com Molly Merrill, Associate Editor molly.merrill@medtechpublishing.com Bernie Monegain, Editor bernie.monegain@medtechpublishing.com Eric Wicklund, Managing Editor eric.wicklund@medtechpublishing.com Nancy Vitucci, nvitucci@himss.org For advertising contacts, see page 29 or visit http://www.healthcareitnews.com Karen Diekmann, Production Manager karen.diekmann@medtechpublishing.com EDITOR, HIMSS INSIDER EDITORIAL STAFF ● ADVERTISING PRODUCTION MARKETING Danielle Hartley, Director, Marketing and Business Development danielle.hartley@medtechpublishing.com Nicole Carter, Manager, Audience Development nicole.carter@medtechpublishing.com Jenna Flynn, Coordinator, Marketing/Circulation jenna.perez@medtechpublishing.com READER SERVICES T (978) 671-0449 Email: cs-hitn@e-circ.net F (978)671-0460 Online: www.myHITN.com P.O. Box 9369, Lowell, MA 01853 The YGS Group T (717) 399-1900, ext. 139 HITN@theygsgroup.com Information Refinery, 800-529-2600, dfoster@inforefinery.com John Glaser, vice president, CIO, Partners HealthCare, Boston Denni McColm, CIO, Citizens Memorial Healthcare, Bolivar, Mo. Jane Olds, COO, Louisiana Health Network, New Orleans Wes Rishel, vice president, Gartner, Inc. William Spooner, senior vice president, CIO, Sharp Healthcare, San Diego Paul Tang, vice president, CMIO, Palo Alto Medical Foundation, California Steven Waldren, director, Center for Health IT, American Academy of Family Physicians LIST RENTALS REPRINTS CUSTOMER SERVICE written to Modern Healthcare about the integration of medical and dental care, did you think to check on whether this HL7 standard explicitly supports integration of medical and dental care and data? If not, then that HL7 standard is OOA = OBSOLETE ON ArrIVAL! Please note AAP (American Academy Pediatrics) statements and positions on integration of medical and dental care and data. Please note these statements from a community health clinic in Ashland, Wis., which may know more about this than HL7: “According to a surgeon general report, “Oral Health In America,” scientific knowledge has evolved to consider the mouth and oral cavity as an integral and interrelated part of the human body and view disease through the medical model. Cavities and periodontal disease are now understood to be chronic diseases caused by specific transmissible bacteria. “Additionally, research has shown associaFTER ALL I HAVE New standard dead on arrival? tions between chronic periodontal disease and several systemic conditions such as diabetes, low birth weight outcomes and cardiovascular disease. “Through integrating oral health services into the medical home, the community has developed a great structure for action to: ■ Change the public’s perception and heighten community understanding and awareness regarding the importance of oral health maintenance. ■ Change policymaker perception and continue to draw in involvement and support from local, State and federal policymakers to ensure that oral health issues are understood and backed for future development. ■ Change health provider’s perception — TLCHC is excited to engage not only community members into this new model of care but also local health care providers to encourage oral health education and assessments as part of a traditional health care exam. leTTeRs see page 9 cOrrEctIONS Healthcare IT News is published by MedTech Publishing Company, LLC, which is solely responsible for its editorial content. Editors are expected to meet the highest professional standards for accuracy, objectivity, fairness and independence. Errors of fact are corrected as soon as the error is established and corrections are published in the medium in which the error appeared. Inquiries or disputes about the factual accuracy of the record should be directed to the editor. EDITORIAL BOARD MAILBOX EDItOrIal INDEPENDENcE Healthcare IT News is published in partnership with the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS). HIMSS members are eligible to receive Healthcare IT News and related publications – both in print and online – as a benefit of membership. With the exception of the HIMSS Insider, which is produced by the staff of HIMSS and appears within the pages of Healthcare IT News every month, HIMSS and its leadership exercise no control over the editorial content of the newspaper and related publications. Neil Rouda Jack Beaudoin, John D. Payne PRESIDENT Neil Rouda VICE PRESIDENTS VICE PRESIDENTS PRESIDENT Jack Beaudoin John D. Payne 2006 JESSE NEAL AWARD WINNER http://www.HealthcareITNews.com http://www.HealthcareITNews.com http://www.HealthcareITNews.com http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/tipping-point-has-arrived http://www.healthcareitnews.com http://www.myHITN.com
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