First of all I would like to say thank you for the recognition from Dr. Crounse at Microsoft. As he mentions this is a huge project to train physicians 
and let’s throw in patients too, as they are part of the ultimate solution, everybody gets involved as it’s no longer for “those guys over there'” only. Good point here too on how many doctors in the US may or may not know who Dr. David Blumenthal is and as Dr. Crounse mentions they are just too busy taking care of patients and all the red tape that goes along with it to keep up.
I have tried to work with a couple hospital CEOs with giving a lecture or talk about PHRs as an outreach program for patients or residents that live in the area and the response has been something along the line of “huh"?” These particular hospital CEOs entertain very little technology as well so how are they in a position to understand Health IT and the value? Granted I am not speaking of all hospital CEOs by all means, but I would bet there are a few more out there like the ones I have encountered, and as long as they are the captains of the ship the employees will follow in their direction and the value of Health IT and electronic records, PHRs and EHRs, etc. falls by the wayside without guidance and direction. I guess this is my day to include CEOs in the scheme of things and suggest they enter this big training program too:)
Personal Health Records (PHR), I don’t do technology said the CEO, “it’s for those guys over there”
Just this week, another Health IT researcher and enthusiast, John Chillmark had his experience which you can read about here. He was presented with the old clipboard and frustration set in as he is in the Boston area and we hear about the massive integration and success electronic records are having in that area, but no integration at the physician’s office he visited with being connected to Brigham & Women’s Hospital, and yes, the clipboards, also at the follow up office on a 2nd visit, so there might be 2 more potentials to come into the fold for this big training project.
This is sadly the reality of what we are working with today and hopefully Dr. Blumenthal is going use his wisdom and expertise to help us tackle this monumental training project. When you read the comments from Dr. Crounse and his experiences, he has the same observations while traveling the globe; a world of clinicians that are still clueless and some that really need handholding to get them through the learning curves. BD
“Perhaps a problem with writing a blog is that your message may be reaching entirely the wrong audience. One of my blogging colleagues, Barbara Duck of the Medical Quack, sent me an e-mail yesterday that illustrates my point. Barbara said;
“With Health 2.0 reading this week, I got a little overwhelmed. I guess all of the technology is great but when you sit down and try to explain it to a group of doctors that only have a fax and maybe a computer or 2 in their offices that are still paper guys, well it’s not a pretty picture and literally scares them. I did a talk a couple weeks ago and covered a few different areas and it was the first time any of them had heard of or seen HealthVault, so there’s a long ways to go. Sometimes when you are communicating with all the brilliant minds on the web you somewhat may lose track or forget about the “real” world that is out there when it comes to technology…… One meeting with the real world cures that in a few minutes though.”
Yesterday I did a keynote for a national conference of clinical case managers. I’d say members of the audience were mostly female nurses between the ages of 40 and 60. I’m sure a lot of the information I shared with them seemed more like Star Wars than anything close to the reality they work in every day. I also encounter lots of physicians who are totally clueless that there will soon be penalties if they are not using electronic medical records. And just like Barbara Duck has experienced, the majority of community physicians and other clinicians I meet have never heard of HealthVault, Amalga, Google Health, Keas, American Well, PatientsLikeMe, Navigenics, 23andMe, and so on.
Dr. David Blumenthal (I wonder if most docs have even heard of him) has announced a “workforce training initiative” to educate more health information management professionals with expertise in electronic health records and related technologies.”
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