There Can Be No Health Care Reform Without An Information Revolution
Janet Marchibroda 06.17.09, 4:50 PM ET
http://www.forbes.com/2009/06/17/health-care-reform-leadership-governance-information.html
As President Obama and Congress take on what the president in his American Medical Association speech called the "ticking time bomb" of health care costs, they need to know that they can't succeed without harnessing the massive data generated by modern medicine. Getting the best information into the hands of doctors and patients, while protecting patient privacy, is not just a desire but an overriding need if we are to get a handle on spiraling costs and also improve care.
By 2010 medical images will account for an estimated 30% of the data stored on the world's computers. Meanwhile more than 20% of medical tests such as X-rays, CAT scans and MRIs are repeated at unnecessary cost, because patient records aren't available for evaluation. And patients and doctors frequently have to make decisions without access to the most up-to-date research or to the guidelines of best practices that lead to the most successful outcomes.
President Obama is correct: Better information leads to better health care decisions. In addition, better information helps avoid deadly mistakes. The Institute of Medicine reports that prescription errors alone cause 7,000 deaths each year in the U.S.
The president is also right when he points out that America has medical schools and research labs that are among the best in the world, yet we don't use 21st-century tools to harness all that medical knowledge and apply it as effectively as possible in patient care.
As others have pointed out, we use far more sophisticated information technology today to track the delivery of a package, make an airline reservation or withdraw cash from an ATM than to help us manage our health--which is far more important to the quality of our lives.
Of course, technology alone is not the solution to the complex problems plaguing our health care system. But it is an indispensable tool for helping to achieve excellence. At the heart of clinical excellence is collaborative and team-based care, with primary care physicians at its core. Better technology will help foster collaboration among teams of practitioners and will help them develop a holistic picture of each patient.
Already many doctors and hospitals are delivering better health care by integrating IT into patient care. Geisinger Health System, Kaiser Permanente, the Mayo Clinic and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center all illustrate the quality that can be achieved with an integrated, holistic approach to medicine. They are all using smarter, more connected systems that enable them to share information and insight and empower patients to make the treatment choices that are best for them.
Yes, the health care industry has complexities that make it very different from any other industry, and yes there must be stringent standards to ensure patient privacy. That said, there is no question that our country needs to modernize its antiquated, paper-based system to create networks of connected information that lead to better care with fewer mistakes, predict and prevent diseases and help consumers navigate the increasingly complicated health care system.
If we don't take advantage of smarter technology, health care may be able to inch toward reform, but it will not succeed in making the structural changes necessary to meet the nation's long-term goals for affordable, accessible and effective care for all Americans. |
发表于 2009-6-19 11:54:26