Next Steps for the National Healthcare IT agenda

At HIMSS, I listened carefully to payers, providers, patients, developers, and researchers.  Below is a distillation of what I heard from thousands of stakeholders.It is not partisan and does not criticize the work of any person in industry, government or academia.  It reflects the lessons learned from the past 20 years of healthcare IT implementation and policymaking.  Knowing where we are now and where we want to be, here are 10 guiding principles.1. Stop designing health IT by regulationThrough its certification program, ONC directs the specific features, functionality, and design of electronic health records. As a result, technology developers devote the majority of their development resources to fulfilling government requirements instead of innovating to meet market and clinician demands. The certification program has established a culture of compliance in an industry ready for data-driven innovations. ONC ’s role in the health IT industry made sense eight years ago when IT adoption in healthcare lagged considerably behind all other sectors, but today the certification program impedes a functioning market and must be reformed.2. Align certification with Meaningful Use (MU) and MACRA/MIPS requirementsONC ’s certification program is increasingly disconnected from CMS’s work to streamline pay-for-performance programs. For the first several years of the MU program, certification criteria were tied to MU measures. Though burdensom...
Source: Life as a Healthcare CIO - Category: Information Technology Source Type: blogs