ONC Annual Meeting on Health IT & Innovation

“Innovation is critical to every goal we have as a nation,” said Todd Park, U.S. Chief Technology Officer, “and nowhere is it more important than in healthcare.” Park led a panel discussion on health information exchange and interoperability at the Dec. 12 annual meeting of the Office of the National Coordinator of Health IT [ONC].

Meaningful Use has served as a catalyst to develop a safer system that improves care, said Whyte [VP of IT Connectivity for Dignity Health]. “The term resonates with non-IT leaders. They want to see outcomes not acronyms.” Dignity’s physicians are live on a very comprehensive ambulatory EHR and 31 hospitals are part of a health information exchange.

The healthcare industry is “baffled and frustrated to look at their own industry,” said Lansky [CEO of Pacific Business Group on Health]. “They can’t believe that this incredibly expensive industry hasn’t already adopted” IT more thoroughly. Meaningful Use Stage 3 begins to “put that out there. Quality measures are going to drag us all kicking and screaming into that world.”