NHIT Week Day Three

Author: Debr L. Ness, President at the National Partnership for Women & Families, wrote a post "Realizing the Value of Health IT: Jumpstarting Efforts to Reduce Health Disparities." Debra asserts that health IT is a valuable tool we can use to reduce disparities for millions of Americans and improve the quality of health care. She highlights a new resource that offers “real hope” to realize the potential value of health IT: the Disparities Action Plan from the Consumer Partnership for eHealth (CPeH). She offers a high-level overview of the Action Plan, which offers a policy roadmap for reducing healthcare disparities while advancing patient- and family-centered care, better outcomes and lower costs.

Author: Geeta Nayyar, M.D., CMIO at PatientPoint, is a prolific writer and adds her second post "Predictive Analytics: Crunching the Numbers to Deliver Personalized Care" where she shares a relatable patient situation to show how predictive analytics can impact can improve healthcare delivery. Geeta then offers other examples of how predictive analytics will help all healthcare providers in the future but cautions that the following must happen first: the integration of patient data across all healthcare stakeholders, including pharmacies, laboratories and other non-traditional providers (ex. Holitic healthcare). Dr. Nayyar also points out that prior insurance claims may also be used here as well as they shed light into a patient’s medical history.

Hans J. Buitendijik, M. Sc., a Senior Key Expert at Siemens Healthcare submitted "Interoperability: How Much Progress Have We Made?." Hans highlights how “interoperability” is a big buzz word in the healthcare industry and defines it, at the core, as the following: the ability to consistently and unambiguously exchange data between two or more computer systems. This means that there needs to be a clear understanding, on both sides of that communication channel, of when, what, and how to exchange the relevant data. Hans then reflects on the interoperability successes he has witnessed at his organization and speaks to the next wave of challenges.

Cindy Munn, MHA, the Executive Director at Louisiana Health Care Quality Forum, which is an NHIT Week partner and the overseer of Louisiana’s REC and HIE, wrote "Building A Healthier State Through Health IT" where she breaks down specific patient benefits of EHRs and living in a state that supports a robust, interconnected HIE system.

Stoltenberg Consulting, Inc. submitted the post "Reflecting on the Today’s Value of HIT to Celebrate NHIT Week." Five members of the Stoltenberg Consulting team ponder the value of HIT from the small scale of a personal physician’s appointment, to a wide view of the impact on nationwide healthcare progress.

Harry Greenspun, MD, Senior Advisor over at Deloitte Center for Health Solutions, wrote the piece "Health IT: adding lasting value to the “fly-by” appointments." Harry compares a recent experience attending a “Back to School” event for his son with the traditional physician visit. Like the “Back to School” event, Dr. Greenspun and his wife only got to meet the teachers for a brief moment, much like a regular annual check-up at the doctor’s office. However, unlike our healthcare system, the teachers ended their conversations by deferring to the online resources, including everything from test results to a teacher/parent portal to speak directly with the teachers. Dr. Greespun then points to the increase in EHR adoption rates but notes that their recent survey indicates that a majority of physicians aren’t using health IT in their primary work-setting (and the system has a long way to go).

Andrew Litt, M.D., Dell Chief Medical Officer, wrote the very thought provoking post "Breaking the code: The potential of the $100 genome." Dr. Litt asserts that the race is on to bring the process genome sequencing to $100/per complete genome, a cost drop that will make personalized medicine truly accessible and offer a gateway to understanding the underlying molecular pathways for disease. He then spells out the steps the industry needs to take before getting there and how big data analytics will be needed to make sense of all the data (once available) to treat diseases – and perhaps, in the far future, prevent them in utero.

Andrew Mellin, MD, Vice President and Medical Director of Enterprise Intelligence at Relay Health, wrote "Population Health Management: A Risky Business." Dr. Mellin emphasizes the importance of risk management models in the new value-based, population health-focused healthcare system. He offers tips on how healthcare leaders can integrate risk models into their population management strategies in three specific areas.

John Yurkschatt, DCA Project Manager at Direct Consulting Associates, submitted a post posing the question "A Career in Healthcare IT…Do You Have the Right Stuff?" As a HIT search consultant, John shares his insights into the “qualities and soft skills” – those skills beyond education, knowledge and experience – that healthcare organizations are looking for when hiring a HIT professional. He highlights the following six traits: communication skills, integrity, work ethic, problem-solving skills, ability to act as a team player and flexibility/adaptability.

Larry Grandia, Board Member at HealthCatalyst and Former Intermountain CIO, wrote the awesome piece "My Thanks to Healthcare IT Professionals … Along with a Look Back and Forward." Larry reflects on his lifetime of work in the healthcare industry, offering high praise for all health IT professionals that have worked tirelessly in automating critical work processes, at all levels and in widely diverse areas of healthcare organizations. He also calls out specific points throughout his years in healthcare where the industry has lagged and dragged its feet in the development of data warehouses and the digital architecture/networks to support it but concludes on a positive note, offering these encouraging words, “I firmly believe the peak is in sight!” I highly recommend reading this one!

Michael Graham, VP, Program Development and Marketing Services at Priority Consult, wrote "Three Steps to Ensure that the EHR Boom Isn’t Another Fad." Michael offers thoughts on how EHR system design can be adjusted to continue being relevant in the clinical community. His three suggestions include: ensuring access to information for the purpose of analysis and benchmarking; recognizing the individuality of clinical specialties; and promoting interoperability among a variety of systems.