Below is from a post from a couple days ago, so I don’t want to go through here and repeat myself, but bottom line is we need the folks with the “smarts” making decisions in this administration, those who have hands on experience with technology. We are all seeing the fall out now of an 
administration who’s leader was a spectator.
We have been through a number of years with figureheads relying on other for everything, all their information, which it is not bad as one person can’t do it all, but have some in house or in head knowledge. It really shows and just watch this video and there’s no doubt on who’s in touch. We need a fleet of jets.
As much as this is about money, it’s about lack of technology education and the value of what it can create. Secondly, it’s an attitude as well, in other words “It’s for those guys over there” doesn’t cut it anymore. It’s for all.
The Massachusetts eHealth Collaborative (MAeHC), has to be one of the very early readers of the Medical Quack and I have featured their press releases as they have moved along with their integration success.
How up to date are you, well here’s something I did with a bit of humor, but all of this technology is here today, think about it.
From a prior post, listen to Senator Dr. Coburn discuss how Congress has been living in the 50s in this video.
Lawmakers Consider Adding Health IT to Stimulus Package – We Need some Congressional Algorithms
The one word here that somewhat scares me is “consider”, is this not a given to fund Health IT? Algorithms rule the world and all decisions made so perhaps we can catch Congress up on the meaning and importance of Health IT. Again, I sure wish we hand some “hands on” folks at the top of the helm here that didn’t have to rely on staff to recommend and translate. Perhaps we could use some Congressional Algorithms.
Just last week Bill Gates spoke on the same subject, and there’s a “hands on” man, and if he were speaking to a “hands on” group, perhaps things could move along a a better pace and we wouldn’t have government agencies such as the FDA having to play catch up.
Watch the video from last week about the AHIC recommendations to the new administration. Most of it drags with thank you comments and a rolling of statistics, with a couple exceptions with Dr. Halamka who they call “the jet” as the video shows respect for him, but an ominous showing of “not understanding”, very clear in just everyone being themselves in the meeting. We need a fleet of “jets” in Washington that understand technology first hand to get away from what we have now. I wonder if those making decisions realize how important this is, other countries are dying for it and we keep thinking about it.
A big part of the issue is stated here: Business leaders hope Obama can cut health costs
Business leaders struggling with rising insurance costs are closely monitoring what government leaders and the insurance industry are proposing. California has more uninsured residents than any other state, according to an August U.S. Census Bureau report, with 6.72 million people lacking coverage in 2007.
California Association of Health Underwriters’ Smith said, “We must standardize our medical records technology and adopt best practices throughout our system and begin to place greater emphasis on quality of care and stop rewarding our providers for merely quantity of care.”
Better health care or better risk management? The first will almost guarantee the second, but it costs money, and as the old saying goes you need to spend money to make money. The second group also agrees on medical records just they don’t understand how to go about it without leaders with “hands on technical knowledge and skills.” BD
From Dr. Halamka’s Blog Post with Some Good Ideas:
At 11am on Saturday December 6, President-elect Obama announced the three major pillars of his economic recovery plan: rebuild our roads/bridges, enhance our schools including broadband, and deploy electronic health records for every clinician and hospital in the US. I've written several recent blogs about the cost of electronic health records, the state of interoperability, and my predictions for the early healthcare IT activities of the Obama administration. I can summarize all my advice to the new administration in one sentence: Allocate Federal funds of $50,000 per clinician to states, which will be held accountable (use it or lose it) for rapid, successful implementation of interoperable CCHIT certified electronic records with built in decision support, clinical data exchange, and quality reporting.
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