Health Care Projects Could Yield Templates for Tackling Big Problems

I will be attending the HIMSS conference again this year and look forward to a great week exploring new opportunities in health information technology.

There was an excellent panel discussion Sunday at HIMSS that looked at innovation in health care with Aneesh Chopra, CTO of the United States, Peter Levin, CTO at the Department of Veterans Affairs, and Farzad Mostashari, Deputy National Coordinator at the ONC. They discussed a three-pronged approach to health care innovation:

1. Invest in the building blocks of innovation, such as R&D and human capital
2. Set the right policy conditions to foster market-based innovations
3. Foster an all-hands-on-deck approach to R&D and standards

There was a great deal of focus on the government in its role as a convener and collaborator and using government as a platform for innovation. Using the examples of the Direct Project and theBlue Button initiative as templates for how government can solve not only problems we face in health care in this country, but other sectors such as energy and education as well.