ARRA HITECH
Despite a strong commitment to delivering quality health care, persistent problems involving medical errors and ineffective treatment continue to plague the industry. Many of these problems are the consequence of poor information technology (IT) capabilities, and most importantly, the lack of cognitive IT support. Clinicians spend a great deal of time sifting through large amounts of raw data, when, ideally, IT systems would place raw data into context with current medical knowledge to provide clinicians with computer models that depict the health status of the patient.
Computational Technology for Effective Health Care advocates re-balancing the portfolio of investments in health care IT to place a greater emphasis on providing cognitive support for health care providers, patients, and family caregivers; observing proven principles for success in designing and implementing IT; and accelerating research related to health care in the computer and social sciences and in health/biomedical informatics. ARRA HITECH, CCHIT Certification, e prescribing software are the latest technology and information those we need nowadays. It is impractical to believe that a “big-bang” of functionality can issue forth in a short period of time from the entire vendor community, or that it could all be absorbed by the hospitals in time for the beginning of the flow of funding at the beginning of FY 2011. Thus, we believe that specification of a sequence of functionality that qualifies for funding must also be part of the consideration.