Healthcare IT News - April 2008 - (Page 6)

Healthcare IT News ■ April 2008 industry news www.HealthcareITNews.com John McCain and Barack Obama had better jump on the healthcare IT bandwagon, say readers of Healthcare IT News. Sixty-one percent of readers who responded to the most recent News Monitor poll believe that information technology does not play a prominent enough role in the 2008 presidential candidates’ plans for transforming healthcare. Thirty-nine percent of poll respondents IllAry ClINTON, News Monitor: candidates need more healthcare It news h By rICHarD PIzzI, Associate Editor were satisfied with the position that healthcare IT occupies in the candidates’ plans, and did not see the need for a more expansive role. One hundred and thirty-five people responded to the question. Readers wanting the candidates to offer more on healthcare IT emphasized the positive impact on the entire system that widespread IT adoption would have. MoNItoR “Healthcare IT can serve to reduce administrative costs and procedures, as well as improve patient outcomes and wellness,” wrote Robert Hardesty of Hardesty & Associates in San Diego, Calif. Respondents dissatisfied with the healthcare IT initiatives proposed by the presidential candidates said the three campaigns didn’t recognize the technology’s profound “without widespread adoption of ehrs and the construction of hies across the country our healthcare system is neither sustainable nor reformable.” – Kim Slocum introduces A new generation of mobility products will revolutionize access to information. MobileHealthWatch.com, brought to you by the editors of Healthcare IT News, enables readers to track the latest trends and developments in mobile healthcare, with particular focus on: w Wireless networks and infrastructure to support mobility w Advances in patient monitoring w Real-time location systems w Wi-Fi telephony w Mobile devices w Privacy and security Every day, the editors of MobileHealthWatch.com scour the Internet to provide you with comprehensive news coverage of the mobile healthcare space, including links to all original sources. MobileHealthWatch.com also offers content-specific e-newsletters so that you can get the news you want delivered to you directly. impact on patient care. “Healthcare IT expenditures play a critical role in medical errors,” wrote one anonymous reader, indicating that the candidates simply did not comprehend its importance. “IT can also empower consumers to effect change and act as catalysts of reform.” Those readers expressing satisfaction with the position of healthcare IT in the national political debate suggested that while IT remains important to discussions of healthcare, it is not the key issue. “HIT is a small – albeit crucial – part of the healthcare reform picture,” wrote physician Kent Jeffery, MD, of Wabasha, Minn. “[But] in its current incarnation, it falls woefully short of its potential.” Other “satisfied” political observers noted that more efforts from the private sector on interoperability and workflow efficiency were needed before any presidential administration made healthcare IT a focal point. Nevertheless, most readers said candidates’ plans should provide a stronger emphasis on healthcare IT than they currently do. “Without widespread adoption of EHRs and the construction of HIEs across the country our healthcare system is neither sustainable nor reformable,” wrote Kim Slocum of KDS Consulting in West Chester, Penn. “Investment in HIT is a necessary precondition to healthcare reform.” ■ More at HealthcareITnews.com e Connect: NeWSMoNItor 0408 ● CInCInnaTI Continued from page 4 Register free today at www.mobilehealthwatch.com sponsored by Cincinnati community. For the “Aligning Forces for Quality” project, HealthBridge is deploying a disease registry that will be used by physician practices to improve care for their diabetes patients. The HIE will also be instrumental in large-scale collection of diabetes quality-of-care data from these practices. “Cincinnati is the only one of the 14 communities involved in the project that has an operational HIE, so this is really a trailblazing kind of project,” said Trudi Matthews, HealthBridge’s director of policy and public relations. Hepp said the HIE’s messaging system will produce long-term savings for this project. “We already have a rich set of clinical data,” he said, noting that 96 percent of all results in the community are electronic. “We think we can dramatically improve the measurement of diabetes compliance because we have electronic data.” The diabetes registry began at the end of December 2007. HealthBridge is enrolling and training physician practices on how to report data, and tracking the physician practice and community levels. ■ More at HealthcareITnews.com e Connect: CINCINNatI 0408 ● http://www.HealthcareITNews.com http://www.mobilehealthwatch.com http://www.mobilehealthwatch.com http://www.HealthcareITnews.com http://www.healthcareitnews.com/story.cms?id=8982 http://www.mobilehealthwatch.com http://www.mobilehealthwatch.com http://www.mobilehealthwatch.com http://www.HealthcareITnews.com http://www.healthcareitnews.com/story.cms?id=8980

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Healthcare IT News - April 2008

Healthcare IT News - April 2008 Contents New Media Push Stepping Down BI Headaches Decision Grants Safety Alerts Summit 08 Growing an EHR Year 24

Healthcare IT News - April 2008

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