Donald Trump has been president-elect for less than a week. What we can expect from him once he's handed the reins of power on Jan. 20, 2017, is anyone's guess.

Whether Trump follows through on some of his bolder healthcare-related proclamations will be seen in the months ahead. At a minimum, he seems likely to make good on his promise to repeal the Affordable Care Act. He has also pledged to tear down state barriers for health insurance and allow people to deduct insurance premium payments from taxes.

However Trump's health policy eventually plays out, the results of a post-election day snap poll on HealthcareITNews.com showed deep skepticism among our readers about what a "megalomaniac with a wrecking ball mentality" might do to a U.S. healthcare system that, for all its faults, has been working in earnest to improve itself over the past decade-plus.

"Health systems have done a lot of work on community health, and this injects a high degree of uncertainty into the equation," wrote one. "What will he unravel?" asked another. "How will it affect hospitals, doctors and patients? His promises to his base are startling." 

 Election 2016 reader survey results:
 ✓ Health IT pros overwhelmingly unhappy Trump won
 ✓ Execs express dystopian view of Trump presidency
 ✓ What C-suite execs expect when Trump takes over
 ✓ 100 things insiders said about Trump's healthcare plans

Still, not everyone was so pessimistic. While many respondents predicted little or no major impacts on healthcare, some were pollyannaish about what Trump might improve. "I think he will act quickly to make changes to benefit the public," said one respondent.

With regard to health information technology in particular, Trump said very little (if anything) about it during campaign. "I'm not sure he's capable of understanding the nuances of health IT policy," one lobbyist told Politico. So it does seem likely that what policy decisions on that front do come from the Oval Office will be influenced heavily by campaign advisors and seasoned pols on Capitol Hill.

[Also: Trump picks healthcare transition leader]

One wonders whether former House Speaker Newt Gingrich – longtime Trump loyalist, now also touted for a top White House job – will hold any sway over his pal's opinions on health IT. Gingrich, of course, is a longtime vocal advocate for the inherent value of health information technology.

In fact, for the inaugural issue of Healthcare IT News in 2003, Gingrich wrote the first of a two-part commentary on the role IT had to play in health system modernization.

He advocated for electronic prescribing, pushed for "a transformed, more personally responsible, incentive-led, and information-rich system," took aim at medical errors and stressed the importance of interoperability to help cope with the dangers of bioterrorism – calling for "an IT backbone that will enable connectivity with real-time capabilities."

Gingrich realized that such a project would "require a very significant federal investment in information technology over the next four or five years." Indeed, in 2004, he excoriated Congress for cutting $50 million of seed money to fund the work of David J. Brailer, MD, the first National Coordinator for Health IT. ("Disgraceful," Gingrich called it.)

Now, as an emboldened GOP majority salivates at the cuts it can make from the federal budget, we'll have to see if other Republicans share his enthusiasms.

It is our hope that Trump and his Republican colleagues keep health IT in high esteem.

After all, if Obamacare has always been a lightning rod, sparking nasty partisan bickering, federal efforts to spur uptake of healthcare information technology have traditionally seen support from both sides of the aisle. It just makes sense.

"There is strong bipartisan support for health IT," Democratic former Senator Tom Daschle has said. "To deliver high-quality, cost-effective care, a physician or hospital needs good information," said Republican former Senator Bill Frist, MD, Daschle's colleague at the Bipartisan Policy Center.

We also hope Trump and his Republican colleagues will continue to support landmark efforts such as the Precision Medicine Initiative launched by President Obama, and the Cancer Moonshot spearheaded by Vice President Biden.

These unique efforts, marshaling the brainpower of hundreds of highly-qualified experts from the public and private sectors, have much to offer — and deserve the chance to succeed.

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