In the HIE Symposium’s opening keynote, Congressman Phil Gingrey, MD (R-Ga.), said using the stimulus bill to drive adoption of integrated EMRs is “absolutely the right thing to do.” Gingrey called the bipartisan health IT efforts “the single most important thing we can do” to bring down the cost of healthcare.

In order to have a fully integrated healthcare system, physicians need to be able to buy certified technology and have access to a <a href="/directory/health-information-exchange-hie" target="_blank" class="directory-item-link">health information exchange infrastructure. The industry also requires having a qualified workforce to facilitate these endeavors, he said. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act’s HITECH Act covers those areas through incentives to healthcare providers and funding for health information exchange and regional extension centers, he said.

Gingrey said he is in favor of the incentives and penalties structure of the HITECH Act.
Co-keynote presenter Rhonda Medows, MD, commissioner and state health officer for the Georgia Dept. of Community Health, pointed out five success factors for state-level HIEs. True leadership is required. With leadership often changing, it’s critical to plan for those successions in order to have sustainability and continuity, she said.

True collaboration involves not just collaboration among public and private entities, including the business community, but also across the continuum of care, she said. Medows emphasized that clinical care should go beyond individual encounter to impact such areas as population health and emergency preparedness.

While funding is being dispersed for EMR implementations and HIEs, sustainability once those funds are gone is critical, she said. Stakeholders need to come up with financial strategies that involve concerted efforts to invest multiple resources. States need to review their current laws and administrative policies to determine their impact on HIEs, Medows said.

Finally, communication is key. Health IT enables communication. At the end of the day, the industry needs to be able to say these efforts improved care of the patient and delivery of healthcare, enabled the measurement of the effectiveness of care, enabled the use of data for such things as population health and emergency preparedness, and prompted innovation in healthcare, Medows said.

The ultimate customer is the patient and consumer, she said. “We intend to deliver with your health,” she said. “HIT is a wonderful thing. It’s a great opportunity.”