National uniform data standards are also critical to the advancement of health IT -- to promote portability when consumers move from plan to plan -- and also to ensure interoperability with clinical electronic records. Shared Health has been successfully working within the state of Tennessee to implement a vision of improving patient quality and reducing systemic health care costs through the applied use of information technology. The early adoption we see in our Clinical Health Record(TM) would not have been possible without the State's commitment to finding innovative solutions for providing health care to its most vulnerable population.
We are pleased that the President has directed Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Mike Leavitt to work with Governors and the Congress to make basic private health insurance available, and to help States pay private health insurance premiums for the poor and the hard to insure.
We are fortunate to enjoy the most advanced health care system in the world, though we remain challenged, patients and taxpayers alike, by the limited application of technology and interoperability to our internal infrastructure. Consumers, clinicians, employers and insurers must share the same system -- and we will all benefit from further advances in the health information infrastructure -- though we will all lose ground the longer it takes to move to a digitized system. We commend the President for his leadership, his vision and his continuing commitment to advancing the overall mission of health IT to improve healthcare delivery and efficiency for all Americans.
Contact:
Rebecca Reid
reidconsulting@comcast.net
410-267-1128
Cell: 410-212-3843
