At the heart of the government's push for health IT is a desire for a healthcare system that is capable of delivering innovation that can help to reduce costs and improve quality. These goals are central to making high quality care available for everyone and to reining in out-of-control costs, which threaten the financial solvency of the nation.
As part of this push, government agencies are doing all they can to support innovation and encourage technology companies as well as healthcare providers to think about the ways in which they use tools like electronic health records to improve the way they deliver care.
For example, the Department of Health and Human Services recently announced the launch of a new website that will provide technology developers with access to all the latest health and healthcare data.
Called Health Indicators Warehouse, the site will allow programmers and other professionals with a resource that department officials said will fuel further innovation.
Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of the department, said that access to the population-based data will help researchers, technology developers and lawmakers direct their future efforts. She hopes that this will lead to the creation of new tools and policies that encourage greater use of technology.
"The Health Indicators Warehouse provides a new public resource needed to fuel development of innovative information technology applications needed to improve health and health care decision making," she said.
While the website could be an effective tool for encouraging development, government officials recognize that providing resources is not enough. The future of health IT could develop in unexpected ways. In order to make sure that their efforts are aimed in the right direction, agencies plan on keeping close relationships with those using technology.
For example, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently announced a plan to survey healthcare providers about the ways that they are using technology and what can be done to support further adoption.
Just under 5,500 providers will let the agency know about their efforts at transitioning to electronic health records. Specifically, the agency is interested in how the adoption of technology has impacted work flow.
The answers to these questions could direct future legislative efforts concerning health IT. When these developments are combined with innovations that result from efforts like the Health Indicators Warehouse, the future of health IT could be significantly different than it is today