Politics and Technology

IDC reportedly announced the release of its latest analysis titled, "The ‘Obama Effect’: The Impact of the Obama Administration on HIT Adoption".

It brings to the fore HIT announcements made by the Obama administration and evaluates the resulting impacts. It makes ten predictions, covers the advocacy role of the Healthcare Information Management Systems Society and the HIT perspective overview.

"The approximately $20 billion in ARRA funding allocated to healthcare IT investment will have a positive impact and will begin the transformational process the U.S. healthcare industry so desperately needs to remain viable and competitive. That said, even if implementation proceeds as intended, a number of issues still loom," said Lynne A. Dunbrack and Marc Holland in a joint statement. They are Health Industry Insights Program Directors for Healthcare Provider IT Research in IDC (News - Alert) and co-authors of another similar study titled, “The Economic Stimulus Bill: A "HITECH HIT".

Since the two reports only generalize about the content topic headings and beyond that do not reveal anything, TMC took its own initiative to briefly investigate the reasons that initiated HIT and the impact of Obama’s plan to overhaul the Health Information Technology (HIT).

In build up to improving America’s health care system, as earlier reported by TMC (News - Alert), Barack Obama, on January 8, 2009 - then, the President Elect, currently the President of the United States of America – made this impacting statement, "To improve the quality of our health care while lowering its cost, we will make the immediate investments necessary to ensure that, within five years, all of America's medical records are computerized. This will cut waste, eliminate red tape and reduce the need to repeat expensive medical tests. But it just won't save billions of dollars and thousands of jobs; it will save lives by reducing the deadly but preventable medical errors that pervade our health care system."

And subsequently when the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009 was signed into law by Obama on the 17th of February, approximately $20 billion from within $147.7 billion for all health care was set aside for HIT. $17.2 billion was reserved for incentives to agencies that promote Electronic Health Records (EHR) effectively, $2 billion for affiliated grants, a part of $1.5 billion was set aside for information technology equipment at community health centers, and $200 million for HIT training.

A positive offshoot is that HIT will allegedly generate at least 200,000 new jobs in USA. HIT also targets early detection of epidemics, chronic disease tracking and creating cloud resident personal health records, as reported by TMC, for individuals to instantly view and share with doctors anywhere on the globe to enable them to avail timely and safe medical intervention.

Global 360 had suggested, as reported earlier by TMC, that before a full scale transition to EHR takes place the Department of Health and Human Services must first do grass-root levels upwards analysis of existing methods used and benchmarking against the best existing electronic systems that have full EHR. Accruing gaps must be tackled with comprehensive and accountable action plans, and non-negotiable standards established prior to the launch of HIT transformation, and the effort requires 100 percent collaborative efforts between IT and HHS to expedite matters.

 “We must make certain that we are not electronically replicating inefficient or inaccurate paper-based systems,” said David Mitchell (News - Alert), President and CEO, Global 360.

TMC concluded that while it will significantly benefit Americans when fully implemented, the process will require nationwide coordination, co-operation, patience, constant and periodic reviews, staff training, and that technology shift rules must clearly defined before any sort of implementation takes place.