Like you, I believe that information technology will ultimately disrupt and transform health delivery. However, that assumes that the right IT solutions are applied not to the current model for healthcare delivery – which is broadly believed to be broken and in need of substantial reform -- but to a future model that has yet to be defined.  Of the various customers/stakeholder/users of the heathcare system, patients and their families are probably the only group with sufficient incentive currently to modify their behavior to align with a new IT-based model for improved management and communication of healthcare data (so long as they aren’t shouldering a greater share of the cost).  Aligning the business models of clinicians, hospitals and insurance companies would appear to be more complex and challenging. And I haven’t heard about THAT work having been done yet.  So, your question – “what will generate the most benefit and how can we accomplish it?” – needs to be applied to ALL the customers/stakeholder/users in a way that will appropriately incent the needed changes, including collaboration among them, in a way that does not now exist.  Once we have that, we’ll know better what specific needs and imperatives the “IT solutions” must be applied to solve to help facilitate the kind of “reform” people are talking about.

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Interesting article indeed. I agree with the seven points you summarized, but the main goal the article suggests is Knowledge Driven Healthcare. This means we not only have to focus on efficience of processes but also at the quality and where possible reduce the risks of human errors. This is a long way to go but with appropriate chronological steps possible in time.

In 1987, President Ronald Reagan gave one of his most well remembered speeches . Few of us could forget

After many long months of discussion and debate , the first draft of Meaningful Use has come out. I’m

"Wow," it is actually nice to read a post from someone that knows a subject well and is able to get their direct across.I am really looking forward to your next post.