HealthIT (.gov) – for everyone, including YOU – video animation

My friend and community colleague (name which community, there are many where we are collegial) Lygiea Ricciardi ( @Lygeia ) sent me a message about the new Health IT video “Health IT for You – Giving you Access to Your Medical Records” that said “if you were to point to it on your blog or twitter, we sure wouldn’t object.” ;

Never mind about that, I insist:

This is the fun part of writing a blog (which is always fun) – celebrating the accomplishments of people you respect. I know Lygeia didn’t produce this work by herself (unless she has secret computerized animation talent I am unaware of…). However it is a testament to her leadership in the Office of the National Coordinator that we are able to write the story of health information technology as a country that includes patients and their families. It wasn’t that long ago that I would hear people saying, “Ted, EHRs are for doctors, PHRs are for patients.” Now, luckily, that talk is all gone and replaced with “Health Information Technology is for everyone (you included)”. I am so glad that Lygeia has been a developer and carrier of that message to the American public – she does it with creativity, resolve, and the ability to laugh as we move ahead.

Now on to the video :). It does a great job describing the need for a change in American health care and the benefits that patients and families should expect from health information technology. The last sentence is very important: “ask your health care provider how they use Health IT.” I mentioned in an interview recently that any person seeing a doctor in this country will be in a practice that has either recently converted or will be converting to an electronic health record. Now is the time to ask them about this and let them know you want to be involved. Let them know that you want to participate in their use of an electronic health record not just because you want to achieve your life goals through optimal health, also because you want them to be a great doctor for you. And who doesn’t want to be a great doctor for you? Everyone does.

I can’t help but juxtapose this video with the “Connected” advertisement from Kaiser Permanente in 2009. I’m doing it to show that this world exists already for 9,000,000 members (and 4,000,000 are now actively using it as of this month- See: A Personal Health Record now serving 4,000,000 registered users – Kaiser Permanente My Health Manager | Ted Eytan, MD), and it’s as great as it seems from both videos. Come join us.