On Wednesday, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT awarded a contract worth nearly $1 million to the Institute of Medicine to conduct a study that seeks to advance health IT’s role in improving patient safety, CMIO reports (CMIO, 9/29).
The $989,000 contract lasts for one year (Conn, ModernHealthcare, 9/29).
Purpose of Study
For the study, IOM will examine a variety of patient safety topics, including:
Summarizing existing knowledge of the effects of health IT on patient safety;
Identifying preventive measures to reduce health IT-related safety concerns;
Addressing the role of private-sector groups, such as certification and accreditation groups, and professional societies; and
Discussing how the roles of federal agencies, such as FDA and CMS, possibly could change.
Expectations
CMS Administrator Donald Berwick said he has high expectations for improving patient safety through health IT (Merrill, Healthcare IT News, 9/30).
National Coordinator for Health IT David Blumenthal said IOM will use its “depth of knowledge” to ensure that health IT “reaches the goals we are seeking for patient safety improvement” (CMIO, 9/29).
