New Zealand Can Lead Healthcare IT

I ’ve been in New Zealand this week, meeting with government, academic, and industry leaders to discuss the IT challenges ahead - social networking-based teamwork for health, mobile applications, precision medicine analytics for decision support, and cloud computing all within a framework of protect ing privacy.I believe that New Zealand has a unique opportunity to leapfrog the rest of the world with healthcare IT breakthroughs that show the rest of us what is possible from a 4.5 million person learning lab.Why?The perfect storm for innovation requires alignment of technology, psychology, and implementation.New Zealand is divided into 20District Health Boards which improve the health of their populations by delivering high quality and accessible health care.The District Health Boards remind me of the County Council system in Sweden, which in my opinion is the best healthcare delivery model on the planet.  Although District Health Boards are funded by the central government, they have flexibility to innovate and there is complete alignment between investment and outcomes.  If District Health Boards spend $1 on healthcare IT and save $1.50 in care costs, they keep the surplus.  Historically, in the US, if I spent $1 on IT and reduced costs by $1.50, the private insurers would benefit, not the provider organizations.  Countries with socialized medicine and local implementation organizations align costs, benefits, and regional awareness of the key probl...
Source: Life as a Healthcare CIO - Category: Information Technology Source Type: blogs