Beacon Communities
Read updates from ONC’s Beacon Communities about how they are helping the nation transition to electronic health records. Beacon Communities serve as examples of health IT in action. These communities have made significant inroads in the development of secure, private, and accurate systems of electronic health record adoption and health information exchange. Check out a short film about the Beacon Communities on our YouTube Channel to learn more.
Latest Blog Posts
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Beacon Community Program’s 2nd Anniversary: America’s Most Wired Communities Light the Way
Every day, technology is improving how we do business, how we stay in touch and how we take better care of our health. Technology is modernizing our world. The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act was the down payment to accelerate the use of technology as the foundation for the broader health care improvement revolution, and two years later we are realizing the rewards of the initial investment. Leaders in communities across the country understood that innovative technology was critical to success in a transformed payment environment, and the Beacon Communities—America’s most wired communities—are lighting the way.
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Southeast Michigan Beacon Community: Helping Patients with Diabetes Management
The numbers are staggering.
Treating diabetes in Michigan costs more than $8 billion annually, according to the 2010 report “The Economic Burden of Diabetes,” and affects approximately 93,000 individuals in the state’s underserved southeast region, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Behavior Risk Factor Survey 2008 Age Adjusted Estimates. Most of these patients lack access to a range of resources needed for effective diabetes management, including financial resources, dietary guidance, and public fitness facilities.
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How Can Health IT Lead to a More Sustainable Health Care System?
Across the country, health care providers are making significant investments to redesign care processes and strengthen their health information technology (health IT) capabilities with the goal of achieving better care, better health, and lower costs. For the American health care system as a whole, the simultaneous pursuit of all three of these aims is essential to sustaining any one of them.
