Health IT Taking Flight–What Is in Store for the Year Ahead

A look at five health information technology trends for the year to come.

1. Meaningful Use Takes Off: My prediction is that at least 100,000 providers will receive Medicare or Medicaid EHR incentive payments by the end of 2012. But, in order for my prediction to come true, the entire health IT ecosystem, including technology vendors, physician and hospital leaders, Regional Extension Centers, state-level health IT coordinators, public health agencies, and many others need to pull together toward getting as many providers to Meaningful Use as possible.
2. Health Information Exchange Turns a Corner: Standards development is now focusing on the Nationwide Health Information Network (NwHIN) since the health information exchange requirements will become more rigorous in Stage 2 of Meaningful Use in order to support the care coordination functions and advanced care processes that providers will need to succeed under new payment approaches. As the business value for exchange increases, our standards efforts will bear fruit, reducing the cost and complexity of implementing basic exchange functions like sending a care summary or receiving lab results. With increased value and lowered cost, information will start to flow.
3. Connecting the Dots on Health IT and Payment Reform: As more providers adopt EHRs and go through the process of attesting to Meaningful Use, I believe they will increasingly see the direct connections between health IT, new payment models, and the ways in which the former can help them succeed with the latter. Moreover, EHRs, health information exchange, and other forms of health IT will increasingly be seen as key enablers within new payment models themselves. We are headed toward a virtuous cycle where payment reform improves the business case for using health IT and greater use of health IT improves the chances that new payment models will succeed.
4. Consumers Use eHealth to Get More Involved: I believe this year we will see consumers and patients use information technology to become better informed about their health and more engaged with their own care than ever before. In large part, this will happen because it’s becoming easier for consumers to electronically access their own information.
5. Innovation Drives Improvement: Mobile devices such as smart phones and tablets are being directly integrated into health IT systems, and I expect this trend will continue to pick up speed as capabilities such as voice recognition are perfected.