HealthIT Insight Summit 2010

Last month marked the 10th anniversary of the publication of the November 1999 publication of the Institute of Medicine's report, To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health System. This landmark report highlighted the critical situation and the contributing factors in what it called the "nation's epidemic of medical errors." Two oft-quoted statistics from the 1999 report were the estimated annual cost of these medical errors, between $17B and $29B annually, and the number who die in hospitals as a result of them, "at least 44,000 people, and perhaps as many as 98,000," each year. In the intervening ten years since the IOM report we have clearly seen some improvements to patient safety, but there is still much need for improvement.

I've been thinking for some time now that in our celebrity-driven culture, it would take a big Hollywood name to latch on to health IT in order to get the masses--and the mainstream media--to make the connection between information technology and patient safety. A few candidates had been involuntarily brought to the fore with regards to EMR security breaches--Britney Spears, George Clooney and the dearly departed Farrah Fawcett come to mind--but I've been waiting for Dennis Quaid to make a splash.

The American Hospital Association and four other national hospital associations have expressed concern over the definitions given to "hospital" and "hospital-based physician" as they pertain to eligibility for ARRA incentives.

As the turkey makes its way into sandwiches, casseroles and tetrazzini, and as the family slowly revives itself from food coma, it's perhaps a good time to digest and reflect upon the year.

And what a year it has been. Economic crisis. Multi-billion dollar stimulus for health IT. The contentious battle over health care reform. And the persistent rhetoric proclaiming that health IT will save the day.

Health IT programs were cited as evidence of potential gains to be made when federal agencies make heir data more accessible, the goal behind an open government memo published Dec. 8 by the Office of Management and Budget.