Mike Leavitt – Link Medical Funding to Interoperable Records – washingtonpost.com
The parenthesis in the title are mine:
Before lawmakers act, they need to think: If stimulus money supports a proliferation of systems that can’t exchange information, we will only be replacing paper-based silos of medical information with more expensive, computer-based silos that are barely more useful. Critical information will remain trapped in proprietary systems, unable to get to where it’s needed.
I would suggest that we be concerned also about the proliferation of systems that keep patients’ health information opaque to patients themselves. The new HHS Privacy Framework, in my opinion, seems to open the door to this possibility (I will quote on it in a post tomorrow) – if a stimulus money is given to a system, should the system also be interoperable with patients and their families by giving them access to it?
2 Comments
Of course, the real answer is that everything should be interoperable, transparent, and accessible. But if we wait for that, will it ever happen?
That's brilliant. Yes, let's insist on that. Excellent idea; it would tear down walls, let in sunlight, cause all kinds of transparency – and empowerment.