"health IT" Posts

Portrait of Dr. Karen B. DeSalvo

Moving Toward Improved Care Through Information

Dr. Karen B. DeSalvo | April 27, 2016

Seven years ago, Congress passed a law to spur the country to digitize the health care experience for Americans and connect doctor’s practices and hospitals, thereby modernizing patient care through the Electronic Health Records (EHRs) Incentive Programs, also known as “Meaningful Use.” Before this shift began, many providers did not have the capital to invest in health information technology and patient information was siloed in paper records.  Since then, we have made incredible progress, with nearly all hospitals and three-quarters of doctors using EHRs.

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Portrait of Andrew Gettinger

The Evidence Shows IOM Was Right on Health IT and Patient Safety

Andrew Gettinger | April 27, 2015

The potential for health IT to reduce errors has been a pillar of health policy on patient safety since the Institute of Medicine’s To Err is Human (2000) and Crossing the Quality Chasm (2001).  In 2012, in Health IT and Patient Safety: Building Safer Systems for Better Care the IOM found the evidence on the impact of health IT on patient safety was “mixed.”  

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Portrait of Dr. Karen B. DeSalvo

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation releases Data for Health: Learning What Works

Dr. Karen B. DeSalvo | April 2, 2015

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) is committed to advancing an interoperable learning health system that impacts individual, community and population health. To achieve this goal in the next several years will require collective action from all public and private stakeholders, including consumers and community-based groups outside of what is traditionally considered the expected set of technology and health care entities.

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Portrait of Dr. Karen B. DeSalvo

Interoperable Health IT for a Healthy Nation – The 2015 ONC Annual Meeting

Dr. Karen B. DeSalvo | December 18, 2014

We are on track to achieving a collective impact in better health for all by working together as a nation to usher in an interoperable learning health system. In such a health system, health information can be collected, shared, and used – not by the government, but by each individual, their providers, and researchers – to improve public and population health, facilitate important research, inform clinical quality measures and care outcomes, and keep our communities healthy.

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