5 Drivers of Healthcare ’s Decentralized Future

By Indu Subaiya & Matthew Holt The contrast between the recent hurricanes in Texas and Florida is illustrative of the progress made in health IT in the past decade or so. In 2005, there were huge losses of patient data after Hurricane Katrina, because the information was available only on paper. However, because of advocacy from the health IT community and partly in reaction to that disaster, the 2009 HITECH Act provided more than $32bn in funding that drove electronic medical record (EMR) adoption. Today, virtually every hospital and most practices are using them. There have been plenty of initiatives to create interoperability and data transfer between systems, with some clear local successes. But overall at a macro-level, health systems continue to rely on a fragile system of arbitrary bridges between silos. We need a new metaphor. But decentralization in health is not just technological. It also reflects the roles of patients, consumers, or citizens. While the barrier between the health care delivery system and the outside world of the patient and consumer is now dissolving technologically, at the same time the e-patients and activist consumers are working to tear that barrier down culturally. There are five main drivers of the coming decentralized health care system. Click here to learn what they’re here.
Source: The Health Care Blog - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Featured Health 2.0 Matthew Holt Tech THCB THCBist Source Type: blogs