Thoughtful articulate article by Mark Levitt the head of CCHIT about the impact of the stimulus money for health IT and the explosion of interest and fear in this area as a result.
He supports my long standing commitment both in person, on twitter and on this blog that the core of health is to start with the patient. I also strongly believe that we need to have their voices at the design and policy stages but without support (IE should Consumer advocate have to continue to pay our own own way to stay up to speed and participate at the endless conferences and meetings but remain neutral?) this won't happen.
"Care would be patient-centered, and the focus would shift to the national health outcome priorities recently articulated by ONC:
* Improving quality, safety and efficiency;
* Engaging patients and families;
* Improving care coordination;
* Improving population and public health; and
* Ensuring adequate privacy and security protection of personal health information."
Practices and hospitals would use their new technology to measure and drive progress toward those goals.
From my perspective as chair of the Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology, the change in atmosphere since passage of ARRA has been dramatic and abrupt.
Besides becoming a bit of a lightning rod for the political dramas mentioned above, we at CCHIT have seen an explosion in demand for certification, as well as for information on how health providers will qualify for incentives and how certification will operate under ARRA. We've also seen an explosion of interest in contributing as volunteers, with more than twice the number of applicants to our work groups than last year.
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