[Med-privacy] Berwick: EMRs, etc.

[pmarshall]

   January 9, 2004

    Meeting Highlights Importance of Health Care IT in Quality
Improvement

   The national health care system must undergo massive changes that
include IT for chronic disease care and electronic medical records for
   tracking patients throughout the system, said Donald Berwick,
president and CEO of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, at an
   Institute of Medicine summit this week, Health-IT World reports.

   The IOM=92s =93Crossing the Quality Chasm Summit=94 in Washington, D.C=
=2E,
was intended to find ways to address some of the most costly
    medical conditions, including heart failure, diabetes, depression,
chronic pain and asthma, by focusing on quality. Berwick called for
    better data sharing and knowledge, as well as information technology
for managing chronic disease.

   Berwick said little progress had been made on a national level to
make care more patient-centric, and he urged attendees to begin a
   grassroots quality initiative in each community. He noted that
geographic data revealed a lack of association between outcomes and
money
   spent per patient, rejecting the notion that a lack of funding is the
cause of quality problems in the U.S. health care system. Berwick said
   health care must undergo changes in accordance with the IOM=92s 2001
report, =93Crossing the Quality Chasm.=94

   =93Build health care infrastructures,=94 Berwick said. =93Adopt the un=
iform
electronic medical record in your community. Let=92s make health care
   as modernized in its recordkeeping as your local pizza joint is.=94

[....]

["IHealth Beat"]