Raising the stakes
The national focus on interoperability continues with a Senate subcommittee drafting a bill this week that would require the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT’s (ONC) Health IT Policy Committee to issue a report on the operational, technical and financial challenges of EHR interoperability as well as the role of EHR certification in advancing or hindering interoperability.
“Many people are frustrated by what they perceive as too slow a pace of change, and this now includes the Senate. It appears that the Senate believes that the lack of interoperability is preventing a return on investment from the HITECH Act--and that moving more quickly towards immediate interoperability will make our healthcare system better, safer and maybe even more affordable,” says Peter Basch, MD, medical director of ambulatory EHR and health IT policy MedStar Health based in Columbia, Md., speaking to Clinical Innovation + Technology.
Basch says he hopes the report won’t be too much of a distraction from other key work that could make health IT work better now and without risking information overload. “There are other ways we could direct the Policy Committee and ONC’s attention and resources that would be a better use of their time than crafting another report on interoperability.”
Is the federal government raising the stakes in an effort to find easy answers to a very complex problem?
Beth Walsh
Clinical Innovation + Technology editor
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.