Law Students

Focusing on EMR's Misses the Point

Given the funding available in the stimulus package for adoption of electronic medical records it is little wonder that the buzz factor has increased significantly around this topic. Healthcare is one industry likely to see significant economic activity over the next few years and most stakeholders are furiously jockeying for position.

This positioning is clearly to be expected, especially by healthcare technology vendors and standards organizations. However, as discussed here, the focus on technology and standards needs to be considered in the proper context. These objectives cannot be viewed as ends but rather as foundational to creating a more competitive healthcare industry.

The latter is the real objective and must remain the central focus of everything else required to underpin it. If the focus shifts to point technology solutions the battle is nearly lost. The naysayers will have a field day providing a thousand and one reasons why any point solution will cost too much and not deliver the promised value.

Lost in most of this discussion is the value to the patient in the form of better outcomes and the strategic value to high quality providers that help deliver them (i.e. assuming that payment systems can be altered in a manner that rewards this  kind of behavior).

The movement toward electronic heath records is simply foundational to the the transformation of the healthcare industry. That it why we must move forward. If we don't build the foundation and infrastructure needed to support a 21st healthcare industry than other high value initiatives (e.g. alternative payment schemes) will remain interesting ideas that have no effective way of being implemented.

Full post as published by LawTechTV on February 11, 2009 (boomark / email).