Healthcare and Technology


Thursday, April 12, 2007


Two years ago I founded the Center for Healthcare and Technology (CHT) at the FedEx Institute of Technology (FIT) with the goal of accelerating technology applications in healthcare environments. We received a large initial grant from a local major hospital system and the Center has embarked on some great research that should provide substantial benefits to hospital users and improved patient care.

But, as we read about the state of our national healthcare system - with costs going up so fast, liability for physicians increasing, medical errors not decreasing fast enough, archaic paper records, lack of physicians exchanging records, insurers on the sidelines at odds with providers, many uninsured Americans, etc. - it leaves us all to wonder the future of healthcare in our nation.

We also see the increase of clinics in Wal-Marts, fewer general practitioners entering the medical field and their pay declining. In addition, there are laws being enacted to force implementation of technology use and the Federal Government enacting RHIO's, or beta sites, for testing models in local areas.

A whole lot is happening. I can't predict the whole future but there are two things I am fairly certain about. One is that we will have electronic medical records soon. Laws are not slowing this down; technology is not slowing this down. People and processes are slowing it down. This is a bottleneck that will continue to free up new processes that will result inevitably in better patient experiences and outcomes for your healthcare.

The other is that as hospitals and practices modernize, new facilities and designs will be required to support the technologies and processes. This means again better patient experiences and outcomes.

The remainder of the spectrum of issues is up for debate. The only certainty is major changes are coming. If I were a physician today and faced the huge changes coming, not to mention pay-for-performance and reimbursement criteria, I wouldn't know when and where to start. Through my learning building the CHT and some of the work done by MBI, I pledge to learn more and to make MBI a consultant to help hospitals and physicians through this labyrinth of change in conjunction with IT specialists, architects and medical process specialists. Our health, as a society, depends on those of us who can help, to help...for the benefit of all of us.

Thank you,

Scott


posted by Scott Messmore @ Thursday, April 12, 2007   0 comments

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