Is Digitizing Healthcare Making It Less Safe?

Event Details

Type: 

Seminar/Webinar

Date: 

July 1, 2014 - 2:00pm - 3:00pm

Link: 

Is Digitizing Healthcare Making It Less Safe?

One of the fundamental justifications for the federal Meaningful Use incentives program is that digitizing health records with electronic health records systems will lead to a boost in patient safety and healthcare quality. But will it really? EHR systems that are poorly designed or implemented can also cause confusion, through usability issues or data errors, sometimes leading to medical errors. The potential for EHRs and associated systems to improve healthcare is real, but how do we make sure to translate theory into practice?

Join InformationWeek Radio on Tuesday, July 1, at 2:00 PM EST for a discussion with Scot M. Silverstein, M.D., a consultant and professor in the Drexel University informatics program who is a leading critic of the claims made for EHR systems and researches the pitfalls of the software and the way it is implemented. He blogs at Health Care Renewal as InformaticsMD. One of the issues he highlights is that there is no systemattic tracking of medical errors associated with functionality or usability issues of EHRs, making it hard to judge whether their net effect has been positive or negative. Yet there are troubling signs, in everything from academic studies to malpractice claims, that the risks of EHRs have been underestimated and the rush to implement these systems may be misguided.

In this program, we will discuss the reasons for concern and the public health and public policy issues to be addressed. Audience participation will be an important part of this program, so be ready with your questions for Dr. Silverstein. Host for the show will be David F. Carr, editor of InformationWeek Healthcare and InformationWeek Government.