On the Road

Over the past few months, I ’ve been in England, China, Denmark, New Zealand, and Canada.Each of them is rethinking their healthcare IT strategy and is not entirely satisfied with past progress.I ’m often asked by senior government officials to help harmonize IT strategy at the country level.  That I can do.  I ’m also asked to discuss the US Presidential campaign, but that defies rational explanation.I frequently say that healthcare IT issues are the same all over the world. Here ’s a few common observations1. Top down never worksIn every country I ’ve visited (there are 195 in the world right now and I’ve been to about half), I’ve never found a healthcare IT program that succeeds by disenfranchising stakeholders and imposing a solution from above.  Asking users what the want/need, then working collaboratively to deliver a workflow solution that enables them to practice at the top of their license tends to overcome any resistance to technology implementations.2. A single EHR for a state, province our country never worksThe VA, Kaiser, and Department of Defense are completely vertically integrated which means that payers and providers in all sites of care (inpatient, outpatient, emergency, urgent care, long term care) are part of the same organization and management structure.  A single EHR platform works in those circumstances.  However, when a country has private payers, private providers, or a mixture of a pub...
Source: Life as a Healthcare CIO - Category: Information Technology Source Type: blogs