A blog post from a fellow at the Brookings Institution's Center for Technology Innovation suggests we learn from the past to save the Meaningful Use program.
Given the waste in the healthcare system, Niam Yaraghi wrote that investment in health IT systems is a "no-brainer." However, "imposing [EHRs] on the medical community and forcing them to adopt and use this technology was destined to fail. Meaningful Use is focused on adoption and use of electronic records as the final goal, which misses the whole point: that IT in healthcare, just like in any other industry, is a means to achieve the actual goal of efficiency." He also noted that there are many other IT services other than EHRs that can help providers.
Yaraghi proposed pilot testing of innovative IT solutions so each provider organization can use the tools that best help them improve their efficiency.
Read the complete blog post.
Editor
Editor Beth earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism and master’s in health communication. She has worked in hospital, academic and publishing settings over the past 20 years. Beth joined TriMed in 2005, as editor of CMIO and Clinical Innovation + Technology. When not covering all things related to health IT, she spends time with her husband and three children.