If there’s one thing I get from reading the newly released report “Trends and Innovations in Health Information Technology,” from America’s Health Insurance Plans, is that there is no single big thing happening in healthcare information technology. Instead, there are lots of initiatives of varying scale and scope that together hold the possibility of dramatic change, and dare I say it, real progress in wiring America’s healthcare system.
I’ve been covering healthcare IT since the eHealth boom and bust that coincided roughly with the Internet bubble. It’s been a long road back. And despite the cheerleading by the AHIP report, which states that “from 2003 to today, health IT in the U.S. has undergone a complete transformation,” there is still a long way to go.
The key, I think, is to ignore the totality of over-hyped visions of what healthcare IT can achieve, and instead focus on the nuts and bolts technologies that bring real efficiencies, savings and improved quality. “Some of the things we’ve been talking about all these years we’re starting to be able to actually do,” a representative from a major IT vendor told me recently. I think she might actually be right.
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