Halamka gives EHR advancements a C+

This is a very good assessment of the Healthcare IT (HIT) systems by fellow Harbor-UCLA Emergency Medicine grad John Halamka. He hits the nail on the head on many of the problems. I think he is actually pretty generous with his grades as interoperability needs to change significantly so physicians are not mired down by their IT system. We need to be able to input information into the “HIT” system using what modality we as providers would like to use. It is time that providers demand the freedom to pick their input modality and advocate that enterprise systems like Meditech, Cerner, and EPIC open up their systems and truly provider interoperability.

Excerpts from the March 1, 2016 Modern Health article

In a presentation that leaned heavily on his personal experience and his own family’s interactions with health IT while seeking care, Dr. John Halamka, CIO at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, gave EHR systems a grade of C+; interoperability, C+; and patient and family engagement, B.

EHRs can record a lot of clinical information but they were also built to record data for billing in addition to reporting for government programs and that overloads providers, said Halamka, chief information officer at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.

To improve interoperability, the efficacy of big data and provider-patient interaction, Halamka said the healthcare IT industry needs to come up with a national provider directory of information systems, a voluntary national patient identifier, and consistent privacy policies.

He also has a wonderfully insightful blog site where he also outlines Beth Israel’s strategic IT plan.