Revolutionizing the $300 Billion Healthcare Information Ecosystem
Jacques Kpodonu MD,FACC
![Jacques Kpodonu MD,FACC]()
Jacques Kpodonu MD,FACC
NIH funded Cardiac Surgeon Scientist @Harvard Medical School
Establishing and maintaining a healthy and diverse Health Information Technology (HIT) Ecosystem will be critical if we want to reach our ultimate goal of healthier populations at a lower cost. Healthcare professionals understand the huge financial burden of having so many chronically ill patients, and the staggering statistics show just how serious the situation is today. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC):
Chronic diseases contribute to 7 out of 10 deaths every year in the United States.Nearly 133 million Americans are living with at least one chronic illness.More than 75% of healthcare costs are attributed to chronic illness
Technology can help by automating much of the process that enables us to understand and improve our patients’ health. But it is not just about the technology. It is also important to have key insight into what changes we must make to move the needle in the right direction for long-term success.
Overwhelmingly, healthcare providers see the Electronic Health Record(EHR )as a panacea that would solve their problems and automatically improve patient care. But with all other industries, the story is quite different. Financial, manufacturing and telecommunications companies bring together many different software products and business intelligence tools to create solutions.
A Healthy, Successful HIT Ecosystem Includes, but is Not Limited to EHR
What does a healthy HIT Ecosystem look like? What types of tools does it take? The EHR is simply the data collector, not the data analyzer, so it takes more than just the EHR to help create healthier populations. We also need business intelligence and analytics tools that give us deeper insight into the health of our patients, and the health of the businesses that deliver care ’ and we need to be able to balance both. This means that providers can’t just look at clinical data and know exactly what needs to be done for their patients; they also need to look at operational and financial data. By understanding the bigger picture and looking at patient populations, providers can change procedures, track outcomes and draw actionable conclusions. In order to do this with confidence and success, you need multiple tools that allow you to look at all the different elements of creating a healthier population, including, but not limited to, population management.
How We Think About Healthcare Needs Updating
The EHR is just the beginning to the solution. We have just started collecting data electronically and are now getting access to additional tools that allow us to use the data in order to provide better, more evidence-based care.
But changes in the Primary Care setting need to happen soon, because today’s unhealthy 40-year-old is tomorrow’s 45-year-old diabetic. Instead of thinking about healthcare on a reactive basis, we have to start thinking about it on a proactive basis by talking much sooner about diet, exercise and repercussions of unhealthy choices like smoking.
The Future Looks Bright for Healthcare Organizations
The good news is that organizations today are starting to understand that the EHR is just one small piece of the overall solution. More and more, they are starting to add Population Health Management (PHM) systems to support their care teams and panel management responsibilities, helping them achieve Patient Centered Medical Home (PCMH) status. They are adding analysis tools that give them insight into their efforts and the health of their patients, helping them identify their high-risk patients. They are realizing that we have to stop measuring people who are sick right now and start looking at who is on the verge of becoming sick by taking the proactive approach.
We no longer live in a world where doctors can sit back and wait until a patient comes to them with a health problem. Having ready access to lab data, weight measures, lifestyle habits and many other factors gives us information into the signs that will lead to chronic disease. By looking at all these factors early on, and utilizing a healthy and diverse group of technology systems, we can proactively move our patients in the direction towards better health at a lower cost.
Developing the next generation global health intelligence tools which enables us to look outside their patient silos and see a community, county, network or state of patients, and compare them to one another is needed as we move forward. Tools that would give us the ability to look across millions of patients and gain perspective of their current health status and helps understand what is happening and what is needed to gain insight to enable development of patient specific protocols and treatment plans at the point of care and in real time.
Business Analysis and Interoperability Solution Expert. PAHM?; CSM?; CSPO?; EDI Specialist
9 年Good article, we are in a path starting with PHM, which will be one of the starting points, the idea provided above is to go with preventive approach than curative approach. For example, if we say the a person is work in a profession which is having less physical activity and his /her BMI is more than normal and age is nearing 40- 45; he/she will be prone to Diabetic. - that will be not accurate. We need to have data intelligence in a way like it will be 90% (based on benchmark) possibility of getting a disease. Any thoughts?
President of Wellington Environmental & Founder of Infection Prevention Learning Institute
9 年Keep us posted, imagine more innovation on the way.
Chief Information Officer | Healthcare IT Executive | Transformational Leader | CPHIMS | FHIMSS | CIO | CTO | Strategist | Innovator | Problem Solver|
9 年Thanks Dr Jacques Kpodonu - excellent post.
Successful multi-exit entrepreneur || Health-tech and life-sciences investor || Real estate investor || Dubai (UAE) and London (UK)
9 年Most of the traditional providers have been selling access to their tools at a price for many year. The USP is the tool, not the insight. The convergence of technology is going to seriously challenge this model. As time goes on, its not going to be the tool but the insight that comes off the data/tools that really make the difference
Nurse Consultant, US Healthcare Division
9 年Thanks Dr Jacques Kpodonu,MD for the post. I would add that #HIT is only as good as the front end user. Currently many EHR systems have been built as complex billing systems and bring very little value add to improving quality and safety at the point of care. Additionally most sustems lack " real-time" information and clinically relevant performance dashboards. While I appreciate the future of technology at POC. As leaders we need to make it part of natural workflow for staff that includes mobile technology and innovation to truly impact goal for#ZeroPatientHarm.