6. July: Health Information Technology Workforce
The growth in the number of providers adopting EHR systems, as well as the number of vendors developing EHR products, is positively affecting employment in the health information technology sector. The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that within the fast-growing health field, the fastest growth has been among IT-related health workers, which added more than 50,000 jobs from 2008 to 2010 alone.
ONC is helping train the health IT workforce the marketplace is demanding through 82 community colleges and nine universities nationwide. As of October 2011, the participating community colleges have graduated 5,717 health information technology professionals, with 10,065 more students currently in the training pipeline. As of November 2011, the universities have produced more than 500 post-graduate and masters-level health information technology professionals, with more than 1,700 expected to graduate by July 2013.
In July, ONC open-sourced the health information technology curriculum initially implemented and tested in the community college program. We have been amazed by the level of interest from across the country and around the world.
7. September: Breach Reporting and Increasing Security Awareness
In early September, HHS’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) issued the first report to Congress on breaches of unsecured protected health information. According to the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, health care providers and their business associates must now notify HHS, affected individuals, and in certain cases the media, about breaches of unsecured protected health information (PHI).
Notifying individuals and officials of security and privacy breaches serves a number of important purposes:
- It helps ensure that appropriate steps are taken to mitigate any adverse consequences of a breach;
- Promotes public transparency regarding such incidents; and
- Encourages providers and their business associates to take action to avoid such incidents.
With this in mind, providers and vendors are increasingly focused on the need to encrypt data, particularly on mobile devices and to regularly conduct risk analyses.
8. September: Consumer eHealth Comes to the Fore
In September, ONC organized a Consumer Health IT Summit that formally launched a Consumer e-Health Program. The Summit initiated a pledge program for public and private sector organizations to support individuals in being partners in their health via information technology.
CMS and CDC issued proposed regulations that would make it easier for patients to access lab data, and developed tools to make it easier for consumers to understand how sensitive information held in personal health records may be used.
More than 250 organizations, such as Aetna, the Mayo Clinic, Microsoft, AARP, and Consumers Union, have agreed to make health information easily available to consumers. The Blue Button, for example, which originated with the Veterans Affairs health system as a way of allowing veterans to download key parts of their medical record, is now being made available to millions of others by numerous public and private healthcare organizations.
Together, these organizations cover approximately 100 million people –equivalent to about a third of the population of the nation.
9. October: Regional Extension Centers Surpass their Goals
Adopting and using an EHR can be a daunting proposition for providers, especially those with limited resources, such as small primary care practices and critical access hospitals. ONC has funded 62 Regional Extension Centers (RECs) nationwide and a national Health Information Technology Research Center (HITRC) to help overcome the barriers to adoption and Meaningful Use.
We have also launched healthit.gov, a web-based information resource that serves as the virtual 63rd REC. The REC program offers providers training, information, and technical assistance to accelerate the adoption of certified EHR systems and the achievement of meaningful use. As of mid-December, the REC program had enrolled over 116,000 priority primary care providers, well exceeding its goal to enroll 100,000 priority primary care providers by the end of 2011. What’s more, the majority of primary care providers in rural areas are enrolled with an REC –70% of rural primary care providers in small practices are receiving REC assistance to make the transition to EHRs and meaningful use.
10. November: Growth in the Adoption of EHRs
Data from the CDC’s gold-standard survey of office-based physicians released in November showed that the percentage of non-hospital based physicians who have adopted a basic EHR has doubled from 17% in 2008 to 34% in 2011. Nearly 40% of primary care physicians have adopted an EHR.
The story is similar for hospitals. Prior to passage of the HITECH Act, only 10% of hospitals had adopted basic EHRs, and only 2% of hospitals were believed to have implemented most of the functionality called for in the Medicare and Medicaid Incentive Programs. In the most recent survey of hospitals, 41% of hospitals eligible for the EHR Incentive Programs had adopted certified systems, with an even higher percentage among larger hospitals and academic medical systems.
The growth in EHR adoption has been accompanied by a sharp increase in the number of providers using EHRs to electronically prescribe. Data show that 42% of non-hospital based physicians are submitting electronic prescriptions through an EHR system, more than a five-fold increase since 2000. In addition, a startling 93% of pharmacies are now capable of receiving electronic prescriptions.
What an amazing year it’s been for health IT and all of us involved in this shared effort and collaborative partnerships.
We’ve navigated through the tumult of these changes by focusing on our key principles:
- Open and inclusive decision-making;
- Focusing on the goal, not the technology;
- Building on what works best;
- Fostering innovation using the market;
- Watching out for the least capable participants; and above all,
- Putting patients’ interests in the center of everything we do.
I’m looking forward to 2012, and I will be blogging next about the five big health IT trends I see for the year to come. Send me your ideas by using the comment section below!
Farzad Mostashari, MD is National Coordinator for Health Information Technology. This post appeared at Health IT Buzz.
