Who's driving this thing anyway?

Jeff Byers - 15.39 Kb
Jeff Byers, content editor
Directions can serve as the ultimate guidance for end goals and aspirations. They can share insight and wit but they also can come up short. We’ve all gotten poor directions. Traveling around the U.S. from city to city, I can recall a mental highlight reel of lackluster directions that still make me laugh out loud.

“It’s the third street before Main Street.” – Apparently, the group I was with was supposed to already have knowledge of Main Street's placement.

“The house is on the left. Look for the kids.” – In lieu of giving an actual house address.

CMIOs are in disruptive times and with burgeoning regulations and technology, guidance is needed. And yet, there seems to be little consensus and direction as to handle certain issues.

The pace of progress in developing interoperability between medical devices and data destinations is influenced as much by well-articulated demand as by technical capability—and it’s up to CMIOs and other beneficiaries of such interoperability to push the issue, said Julian M. Goldman, MD, medical director of the biomedical engineering program at Partners HealthCare System in Boston in a recent interview.

“The outcome for health information exchanges (HIEs) depends not just on having the right decision-making and consultation processes, but on political agreement regarding the proper policy path forward and financial resources to fund implementation,” stated the authors of a recent Brookings Institution report.

And yet, with all the running around like a chicken with its head cut off to grab government incentive funding and attain performance measures and interoperability, the market is fueling economic growth. According to the eHealth Initiative, EHRs and HIEs represents an untapped resource for job creation.

As CMIOs process the information and hunker down to manage their craft, directions to map out their present into their optimal future is needed. Bill Crounse, MD, senior director of Microsoft healthcare division, recently chatted with CMIO to discuss how healthcare leaders can build their industry into better business. Check out his comments at the link.

Please share your directional woes and truimphs with us.
 
Jeff Byers
Content Editor
jbyers@trimedmedia.com

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