Move over Dr Leavitt!! Mark Leavitt has resurfaced rapidly after exiting stage left as the Obama administration takes over the center of government. He is now the Chair of the CCHIT, the body that certifies EMRs and information systems for interoperability. He and John Hamlaka as well as John Tooker, MD the head of the American College of Physicians write today in The Health Care blog about the progress of Health IT. It is an excellent read and accurately describes the present state of the ‘art’ and the forecasts and wishful thinking for the future.
Their forecast is for better times for health IT. Much of this results from the recent economic chaos and misery stimulating our central government to hand out dollars guised as stimulants. Health IT needs will be included in the framework of the overall program(s).
From failure comes success. Strange bedfellow….bank failure, crashing credit markets and a prediction and/or promise for a booming health IT. Go figure! When we were ‘relatively rich’ there was nada for health IT. Five years or more ago ONCHIT was formed and RHIOs were encouraged, with mostly negative progress save for a few successful ones. Much of the work was done by volunteers, champions of IT, and others.