Health Information Technology –
Is it the Silver Bullet for Healthcare?

by Kevin Sparks

Four years ago, President Bush established the Nationwide Health Information Network (NHIN) within Health and Human Service.

 

NHIN set out some lofty goals for the Healthcare Industry to be realized within a 10-year period. Some of the more interesting goals were:

•To develop capabilities for standards-based, secure data exchange nationally;

•Ensure appropriate information is available at the time and place of care; and

•Promote a more effective marketplace through accessibility of accurate information on healthcare costs, quality, and outcomes.

It’s time to step out of your fusion-fuel-celled flying hovercar, George Jetson, and fast forward to today. Where are we in the development of this vibrant healthcare ecosystem, where electrons
are pinged across our community at the point of care in real time? After all, the banking industry exploited information technology to the advantage of the consumer many years ago in the form of the ATM networks and, more recently, on-line banking and bill pay. So why is healthcare so far behind?

Let’s start with the basics. What the banking industry did was nothing short of a technical miracle—they gave me the ability to hop on to the internet to pay my bills. A couple of clicks and
I am good to go – everyone gets what they need. More important to the average consumer, it’s
easy to understand, easy to use and it works consistently.

But what about healthcare? On a hot July evening your family is watching your daughter
play a competitive game of softball. She hits a thundering shot to right field and rounds the bag
for third. The throw is on the way from the cut off forcing her to slide head first into third base.
She catches her left arm under the base during the slide and it breaks.

You rush to your daughter, while at the same time whipping out your smart phone. You click on your family page, hover over your daughter and click the emergency button. Your phone notifies your doctor that an emergency is pending. Your doctor’s office automatically returns the
location of the closest treatment facility. At the same time, your insurance carrier is notified, nd
your daughter’s personal health record fires to the same treatment facility. You arrive, and the doctor on call already has a list of your daughter’s allergies and medications. As you leave the facility, with your daughter in her new pink cast, you finalize payment from your tax deferred health savings account with the swipe of a card.

Are we there yet? Not quite and quite possibly for some of the same reasons we aren’t flying
around Jetsons-style in hovercars. A financial transaction is not the same as a healthcare transaction. It’s bigger and more complicated than we anticipated. If they both traveled down the information highway by tire, the financial transaction would be a two-wheeled scooter and the healthcare transaction an 18-wheeled tractor trailer.

Progress is being made, standards are being developed, and systems are becoming capable of talking to one another. Technology will be a key enabler of systematic change in healthcare, just like it has been in financial services.

But to make it happen, we need you, the consumer, to take the wheel by asking questions, such as, Why do I have to fill out that form again? Why can’t you tell me how much it costs? Why don’t you know that I am allergic to that medication?

Is health information technology the silver bullet for all of our healthcare woes? That remains to be seen, but I am certain that we won’t get anywhere if we put on the brakes.

 

Jack Cashill is Senior Vice President, Information Technology and Chief Information Officer of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City.
P     |    816.395.3334
E     |    Kevin.Sparks@BCBSKC.com