Obama win: Some say it's good for IT, others worry about too much changeHealthcare leaders expressed optimism with Tuesday's victory of President elect Barack Obama and are encouraged by his promise of $10 billion a year over five years to advance healthcare IT adoption to reduce healthcare costs and improve quality of care. David Brailer, a former federal healthcare IT czar who has offered to advise Obama, said prior to Tuesday that no matter who wins, digital medicine – electronic records, plug-and-play connectivity, telemedicine and new portability and privacy rules – will continue to see progress in the United States.
These innovations will make reform of the healthcare finance and organization easier, cheaper and more effective, he said.
Glen Tullman, CEO of Allscripts-Mysis Healthcare Solutions, was pleased with Obama's victory, and not just because of the promise of healthcare reform.
"This is truly a historic moment for our country, and for the world as well," he said.
Tullman, who served on Obama's campaign healthcare advisory panel, said "Obama is good for America and good for healthcare." He anticipates Obama will emphasize the use of electronic tools to improve quality and reduce costs in healthcare. In the current economy, the industry will likely go after electronic health records and e-prescribing as the least expensive way to make these changes initially, he said.
Tullman said the president-elect has a good understanding of healthcare IT.
"This is a very exciting time for healthcare, to have a visionary president who understands the promise and power of healthcare IT – and he does," Tullman said.
Some stakeholders have expressed concern that an Obama win could endanger work already accomplished by federal standards committees and certification organizations.
John Halamka, chairman of the Healthcare Information Technology Standards Panel (HITSP), said both candidates have made supportive statements about healthcare IT in the debates. "My HITSP role will continue through the change in administration until October 1, 2009," he said.
Andrew Ury, MD, chief medical officer of McKesson Provider Technologies and vice chairman of the Electronic Health Records Association, said "both campaigns included encouraging healthcare IT and EHR adoption in their healthcare proposals."
"No matter who wins, I believe that there will be a continued emphasis on encouraging EHR adoption," he said prior to Obama's victory. "Because of the ability of EHR technology to help control healthcare costs and increase the quality of care, I hope that the federal investment in EHR adoption incentives will be increased."
Ury cautioned against the new administration "starting over" on developing healthcare IT standards.
"Within HITSP, we've spent a great deal of time forming, storming and norming, and have produced very promising work which is now being taken up by implementors," said Keith Boone, an interoperability architect at GE Healthcare. "The one piece of advice I'd give the next administration would be to have care with what they change. HITSP is working well, and I'd regret seeing the work of that organization impacted by a large upheaval."
Martin Jensen, a healthcare consultant with the Healthcare IT Transition Group said, "I was pleased to see that healthcare IT actually made the cut when Senator Obama was selecting topics for his 30-minute Obamamercial. There seems to be a strong bipartisan consensus that healthcare IT can save money and improve quality, and I think we can expect HIT to be a big part of Obama's healthcare reform package."
"But those of us within the industry need to acknowledge that there are a lot more ways to do it wrong than do it right," Jensen added. "The most important thing is to look where the incentives need to be to pull us in the direction of interoperability and exchange."
"The first interface we need to build is trust. Data won't move without it," Jensen said |
发表于 2008-11-7 08:19:25