Recommendations on Improving Health Care Through Information Technology

With the national dialogue on health care reaching epidemic levels, a distinguished group of bipartisan health policy and technical experts yesterday released a report calling for accelerating adoption and use of health information technology (HIT) and electronic health information exchange (HIE) to speed improvements in the U.S. health care system.

In their inaugural report, Accelerating Progress: Using Health Information Technology and Electronic Health Information Exchange to Improve Care, the State Alliance for e-Health (State Alliance), a consensus-based, executive-level body composed of governors, state legislators, attorney generals and state commissioners, examines the challenges states face in implementing HIT and HIE, including provider concerns about implementation costs, variations in technical standards for interoperability and consumer concerns about data privacy and security. The report is meant to spur continued innovation in states to make the vision of an interconnected, efficient, quality-based health care system -- and ultimately a healthier American public -- a reality.

The State Alliance specifically highlights e-prescribing and consumer privacy as critical to advancing e-Health in America and encourages states to be proactive in creating and implementing policies that advance these and other e-health initiatives. Taken together, these improvements have the promise of transforming health care in the United States. E-prescribing is cited as a landmark gateway to stimulating other advances in e-health, but progress in this and other e-health areas must move simultaneously with increased scrutiny and attention to protect the privacy of consumers' health information.

"We must harness our American ingenuity to bring about a technological revolution in America's health care system," said Vermont Gov. Jim Douglas, co-chair of the State Alliance. "HIT and electronic HIE are essential tools in states' efforts to control costs and improve health care in the United States."

"The United States spends more per capita on health care than any other developed country in the world, but we fail to achieve the results in terms of health outcomes and access to services that our citizens deserve," said Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen, co-chair of the State Alliance. "Improving e-health is about improving a patient's overall health care experience, from increasing efficiency and coordination of health care and reducing duplicative visits to preventing medication errors and protecting the public's health."

In addition to advancing e-prescribing and addressing privacy concerns, the new report offers other recommendations -- along with specific strategies -- to help states speed the transition to increased use of HIT and electronic HIE, including:

• Promote the use of standards-based, interoperable technology;
• Streamline the provider licensure process to enable cross-state e-health;
• Engage consumers to use HIT in managing their health and health care;
• Develop workforce capacity to support electronic HIE efforts; and
• Provide leadership and support for e-health efforts.

To help states navigate the complexities of developing and using HIT and electronic HIE, the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices created the State Alliance for e-Health in 2006. The State Alliance -- supported by funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services -- provides a nationwide forum through which governors, state policymakers and other stakeholders can work together to identify effective HIT policies and best practices and explore solutions to challenges related to the exchange of health information.