(HealthTech Wire / Interview) - World of Health IT 2010 (WoHIT), organized by the Health Information Management Systems Society (HIMSS) in cooperation with the European Commission and others, will be opening its doors in Barcelona from March 15-18. For the first time, the event is being co-located with the European Commission’s High Level Conference on eHealth. Jeremy Bonfini, Senior Vice President Global Services at Chicago-based HIMSS, spoke to HealthTech Wire and shared his views and expectations – about WoHIT 2010 and more…
What can we expect from the new set-up in Barcelona?
Given the incredible investments that the European Commission, the Member States and the regions are making in health IT, ministers from the High-Level conference should see firsthand what they are getting for their money. WoHIT attendees in turn have the possibility to make themselves heard in the policy sessions. WoHIT 2010 will provide the first unified platform for European eHealth.
Where do you see the greatest potential for health IT?
Integrated care delivery systems have had the most success and the fastest adoption rates. If the government is paying for the healthcare, directly managing the hospital and employing the doctors, any sort of investment they make in health IT is immediately realized and they can see the return of investment. In more fragmented systems it is very difficult to get over the initial barrier of making a major investment, because it is not immediately clear who benefits financially.
What would be a solution?
At the end of the day, governments are paying for healthcare. Even in the US taxpayers, are in one way or another paying nearly 50% of the national healthcare bill. Once governments start imposing certain requirements in terms of quality and benefit, e.g. reducing the number of errors, this will drive organizations to adopt health IT. Because it is impossible to deliver better healthcare and improve efficiency without information technologies.
There are, however, hospitals which want to provide better care and a more patient-friendly environment whether they are being paid for it or not. They will make the initial health IT investment but many providers simply can’t afford the upfront cost on their own.
Some say there’s a lack of evidence about the potential benefits of health IT, especially with regards to cost savings….
There is no lack of evidence – there is living proof every day of major healthcare systems that have got it right.
Healthcare providers who have adopted health IT and serve as shining examples of what is possible include Kaiser Permanente, the US Veterans Administration, The Hong Kong Health Authority, or hospitals such as Asklepios Kliniken (Germany), St. Olav’s Hospital (Norway) and Georges Pompidou Hospital (France). These organizations and many others have bullet-proof evidence. We have the CIO of Kaiser Permanent speaking at WoHIT and an entire track dedicated to “eHealth works – here’s the evidence”.
However, there are many organizations that have tried and failed. So the question is not about value, but about adopting IT effectively and understanding change management. Another challenge is the fee for service systems - when you implement health IT and save somebody’s life by preventing a medical error, you don’t get paid anything extra…
And the persistent concerns about privacy…
The privacy issue is not a technological one – it is a question of perception. There is a lot of concern in politics surrounding privacy. It seems to be an assumption that paper is safer – but in reality paper kills and it is the least safe option for health records. A paper record sitting at the foot of a bed is extremely vulnerable to anybody who passes by to read it and who can just carry it off.
In a digitized healthcare system we can give patients the ultimate power over their health information. We have the ability to notify them whenever someone requests access to their EMR; audit trails provide history. Technology can do a lot if that is what a country, a hospital or citizens desire.
Let’s not forget that 90% of the healthcare information is extremely boring – hackers wouldn’t even want to have it. Banking information and credit card information, for example, can be easily exploited for financial gain – not so healthcare information. Nevertheless, a breach is never acceptable – which is exactly the reason why health information should be stored in a digitized and not in a paper-based system.
Do you have an electronic health record?
Yes, I have a personal health record and I do have an electronic medical record – but they are not connected at this point.
Will WoHIT drive the "consumerization" of eHealth?
Yes, because we can’t go on delivering healthcare like we have for the past 2000 years. The assumption so far has been that healthcare is provided in hospitals or by the GP. But chronic diseases are expected to double or triple over the next twenty years. The legacy healthcare system cannot cope with the chronic disease wave and the demographic shift - there are not enough doctors, not enough hospitals. We have to give people the tools to care for themselves at home, every day.
At WoHIT, the Continua Health Alliance will be announcing a new usage model in which data collected by the patient in the home is connected to the clinical information. This convergence will be the mega-trend over the next 5-10 years and the way in which health IT will shape the future of healthcare….
…which is exactly the mission of HIMSS. How strong is the association in Europe?
HIMSS Europe has been focused on creating a single platform to advance the use of eHealth in Europe – and WoHIT 2010 brings this forward. We will also continue to introduce practical health IT training and professional certifications.
Another HIMSS Europe event is the leadership summit in Rome, where health IT directors will focus on the practical challenges they face and on specific issues such as the convergence of health IT and medical devices.
What can Europe learn from the situation in the United States?
The US has, for the first time, started to calculate and introduce incentives for the application of health IT. What constitutes meaningful use of health IT has therefore been a major topic of discussion over the last year, e.g. should a hospital be reimbursed for a medical record kept in an Excel spreadsheet?
The conclusions from this discussion cannot be copied precisely in Europe – because Europe is different, countries and regions within Europe are different. The perception at a high level is that systems are not comparable.
But the meaningful use definitions and other efforts such as the US national Health IT Certification Commission (CCHIT) are certainly fueling the debate in Europe. What qualifies as an effective use of health IT? What sort of incentives work to drive adoption? Should nations, regions or the European Commission develop certification criteria for Electronic Medical Records? These are the questions that the decision makers at WoHIT will eventually decide.
Thank you for your time and answers. (HTW)
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Source: HealthTech Wire on behalf of HIMSS Europe
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