Demonstrating “today” at The Sidney R. Garfield Health Care Innovation Center

I am here in Oakland, California, and having completed my first presentation about Kaiser Permanente’s work in health care information technology, I have now done my first live demonstration of Kaiser Permanente’s work, at the Sidney R. Garfield Health Care Innovation Center, in Oakland, California.

Just as with the presentation, I was a little nervous about the demonstration. Unlike the previous health information technology environment I was a part of, this one is between 10 and 100 times as vast, and I wanted to respect the work of the experts who were involved in making it happen.

And, the experts have done great work – I looked at a specific aspect of Kaiser Permanente’s care, highlighted in this television advertisement, that has resulted in a 30% lower death rate from cardiovascular disease among Kaiser Permanente members relative to other Californians. Kaiser Permanente, by the way, has funded expansion of this program to patients outside of Kaiser Permanente through its Community Benefit work.

The demonstration was attended by other Kaiser Permanente experts and members of the national media, to see “today” and “tomorrow.” And there’s lots of tomorrow happening here, because the reality is that there are still very few organizations that are at this maturity level of electronic health record use.

I’m including some photographs below, and I am supported in sharing them here, just as the innovation will be shared. There’s a fully simulated hospital ward, ambulatory medical center, and even a patient’s home (because that’s where the hub of good health should be). A lot of what is being developed here will find its way to patient care inside of, and outside of Kaiser Permanente. A lot of it already has. From reading Sidney Garfield’s writings, this is by design. Enjoy and feel free to let me/us know what you think.

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Ted Eytan, MD