16 Jul If it's patients vs. IT industry, IT industry will lose every time
In The Perfect World, we’d all have electronic health records that are complete, portable, and secure. But here in the real and imperfect world, the government’s aggressive injection of itself into an already bewildering situation is pitting patients versus the IT industry. Or as the headline over an excellent news story asks, “Who really profits from digital medical records?”
The article wastes no time in framing that question as a battle involving on one side patients and the soaring costs they face, and on the other side the technology industry that is understandably eager to chase the $45 billion that the federal government is waving in its face. Here’s the very first sentence from a very strong piece in Dallasnews.com:
“An unprecedented effort to computerize the nation’s hospitals and physician offices could be the key to reducing crippling health care costs – or a giveaway to technology vendors whose sales will be subsidized by taxpayers.”
The article also does a nice job of explaining the tensions arising between the position taken by a commission set up by health-care industry group that is setting standards and certifications that IT vendors must meet, and the revisions to those standards and certifications that have been made by the federal government as part of its effort to use the $45 billion in promised funding to radically reshape the health care industry in this country.
Read Bob Evan’s full article at Information Week>>