NHIT Week Day Two

We start day two of the NHIT Week Blog Carnival with Jane Sarasohn-Kahn of the very popular HEALTHPopuli blog and a health economist and management consultant who wrote the post "Healing the Patient-Doctor Relationship with Health IT." Jane focuses on the consumer adoption and involvement in personal health IT, pointing to recent findings that show most health-engaged people may trust a physician less than a non-engaged patient. Simultaneously, these patients are also turning to online health resources (over physicians) for health information. In order to preserve the doctor-patient relationship, Jane asserts that providers must “open up the digital health kimono – EHRs” in order to successfully transition from the volume-based payment model to the value-based model.

Russell P. Branzell, President and CEO at CHIME wrote the important piece "HIT Capabilities – They Are Personally Important to Me." Russell shares how he has personally witnessed the power of health IT through a personal story. His son was diagnosed with Landerhans Cell Histiocytosis, a rare cancer-like blood disorder, four years ago and while the experts that can treat his son are within the state, they are still 65 miles away at Denver Children’s Hospital. Health IT enabled the remote treatment of Rusell’s son, making him one of the first non-adult chemotherapy patients treated and managed remotely by the experts at Children's Hospital. Russell and family are glad to report that there is a happy outcome to this story: after intensive treatments during his junior and senior year of high school, Russell’s son is in full remission and doing great at college. Russell offers this as an example of the simple and profound ways that wires, software and computers (health IT) can be the difference between life and death.

Udayan Mandavia, the CEO at iPatientCare, submitted the post "Value of Healthcare IT from my perspective" which highlights how health IT helps patients and physicians remain engaged and proactive in their health. He also points to how health IT bridges gaps in care caused by socioeconomic disparities, leveling the playing field for communities across the country (and the world). Udayan concludes with this point: healthcare IT leads to “better outcomes, lower costs, meaningfully.”

Nick Giannas, Senior Associate at Witt/Kieffer, writes "What’s the Value of Health IT? The CIO Has the Answer." Nick asserts that health IT is actually invaluable as it enables what we understand as the continuum of healthcare. He instead asks why everyone in healthcare doesn’t share this same viewpoint, asserting that guidance and leadership on the value of health IT must come from the C-suite, thus the CIO is extremely valuable. As an executive recruiter, Nick offers several defining characteristics that every new CIO should have.

Cortney Nicolato, Vice President at Get Real Health, has written "Get Real Health is Participating in National Health IT Week." Cortney states that health IT brings effective, evidence-based healthcare to patients that enables improved, scalable patient-provider collaboration that transcends geographic boundaries.

Charles Christian, the VP/CIO, St. Francis Hospital, has written "Using Health IT to Resolve the Unknown." In this post Charles offers an example of the value of health IT through a story of how the Indiana Health Information Exchange (IHIE) helped patients in the aftermath of the August 2011 Indiana State Fairgrounds event when a temporary roof structure collapsed, killing seven and injuring 58. All of the surrounding medical facilities were connected to the IHIE, providing a centralized method of knowing where patients have been transported so that families and loved ones could track down any injured patient accordingly.

Geeta Nayyar, M.D. the CMIO at PatientPoint added the post "National Health IT Week Provides a Glimpse of the Future." Dr. Nayyar offers her perspective on health IT’s role in improving the quality of healthcare delivery as a practicing physician. Throughout the week, she’ll be offering a series of blog posts that will touch on specific topics ranging from new patient engagement strategies for physicians to the value of predictive analytics. To close out her opening post, Dr. Nayyar insists that health IT will only see its full potential when it becomes completely integrated into the daily lives of patients and families.

Brett Davis, a Principal at Deloitte Consulting, wrote "Leveraging 'real world evidence' to answer the hard questions in health care." Brett feels that we are in a place where today’s healthcare environment can be captured in this quote: “It was the best of times; it was the worst of times.” Modern day medicine coupled enables advancements like “personalized medicine” but the unsustainable cost structure of the system threatens future innovation. Brett indicates that many characterize the value vs. volume reimbursement model as one that stifles innovation and offers an alternative: a data driven, value-based, personalized healthcare system.

Scott Mace, the editor at HealthLeaders Magazine, wrote a great article entitled "Patients Define Evolving Expectations for HIT" whereby through a series of interviews with key stakeholders across the healthcare spectrum, he finds the true value of health IT lies in the happy-medium space where patients are empowered by their providers to be engaged and proactive in their own care and encouraged to view physicians as the “curator, guide, Sherpa, coach and counselor.

Gail Latimer, MSN, RN, the VP and Chief Nursing Officer at Siemens, wrote "The Value of Health IT – A Nursing Perspective." Gail touches on the themes that are echoed in advocates of Accountable Care Organizations and the Patient Centered Medical Home: one key way to improve and streamline patient care is by allowing all healthcare professionals across the continuum to function at the top of their license. Gail touches on nurses specifically and highlights how health IT can help support nurses in this new setting by providing timely access to key clinical information they need to deliver care.

I am looking forward to seeing the posts throughout this week as we begin to celebrate National Health IT Week. Stay tuned for future updates...