Modern information technology offers unprecedented opportunities to improve health care for Americans, promising better quality at a lower cost. HHS is working aggressively to promote the use of technology to improve patient safety and to allow quick, reliable and secure access to information that promotes the best possible care across the health care system.
A key part of this broad effort is developing a National Health Information Infrastructure — a system that would allow a doctor or other health-care provider to access an always-up-to-date electronic health record for a patient who has authorized it, regardless of when and where the patient receives care.
This would not be a national database, but rather a set of standards and secure networks that would allow a doctor or hospital to immediately gather relevant information by computer network — such as test results, x-rays and medical history as well as clinical guidelines, drug labeling and current research findings — to best treat an individual patient.
Such a system would also help consumers and patients to manage their own health by giving them greater control of their health records. Local health information systems are already working successfully in a number of communities and under development in some others.
HHS is encouraging the development of these systems and taking the steps needed to ensure they will be able to communicate with one another. President Bush has establish a national goal of assuring that most Americans have electronic health records within 10 years. He also has ordered the creation of a central office at HHS to oversee this complex effort.
Once widely implemented, such a system would dramatically improve the quality of patient care and reduce the nation’s health care costs by:
� Making the patient’s up-to-date medical record instantly available whenever and wherever it is needed and authorized;
� Avoiding costly duplicate tests and unnecessary hospitalizations;
� Providing health professionals with the best and latest treatment options for the patient’s needs;
� Helping eliminate medical errors;
� Streamlining the reporting of public health information for early detection and response to disease outbreaks and potential bioterrorism;
� Creating opportunities to gather non-identifiable information about health outcomes for research to identify the most effective treatment options;
� Providing better, more current medical records at lower costs; and � Protecting privacy.
BUILDING A NATIONAL HEALTH INFORMATION INFRASTRUCTURE
Office of the National Health Information Technology Coordinator.
At President Bush’s direction, HHS is creating the new position of National Health Information Technology Coordinator. The coordinator’s office will provide national leadership to support efforts across government and in the private sector to develop the standards and infrastructure to support more effective use of information technology to promote higher quality care and reduce health care costs. The coordinator will be appointed by the Secretary, in consultation with the White House, and will report directly to the Secretary.
Source: Medical News Today
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