One of the most significant obstacles to improved patient care, at a reasonable cost, is the relative lack of real-time access to current, comprehensive patient medical information that is easily retrievable for patients, healthcare providers, and healthcare payers. To impact the quality of US healthcare, patient information must be captured, updated, and shared with all stakeholders in a timely and effective manner to not only ensure universal access to quality data, but also to extend essential information to key clinical decision makers. For EBM to be successful, developers must devise standards for medical records, including content, terminology, …show more content…
According to Dr. Carolyn Clancy, former Director of AHRQ, speaking at the 2005 American Medical Informatics Association on Health IT, “if (physicians) are going to avoid injuring patients—and succeed in giving them the right treatments—and spend dollars effectively—then (physicians) need the best information (they) can get about which treatments really work, and for whom. “In a word, (physicians) need the strongest foundation possible, of evidence and results in health care.” Not all applications of technology to healthcare problems save money or improve care. And, while younger care practitioners are open to and very comfortable with technology, it can easily lead to irrational exuberance around its adoption and use in situations that do not have clear ROI. If, at the critical point of decision-making, physicians can access comprehensive, current medical information for their patients,--including past comprehensive medical history, drug allergies, medications, laboratory results, and other relevant information—they can include EBM as a part of their disease management regimen. They can also confidentially conduct rapid research through specific …show more content…
In recent congressional hearings on healthcare cost containment, IT has consistently been cited as a major part of any successful reform. Finally, when all parties of the healthcare ecosystem have access to comprehensive, current, accurate health information in a timely fashion, the incidence of misrepresentation and the need for resolution of claims disputes by providers, payers, and patients over treatment billing and reimbursement justification should be significantly reduced. The availability of relevant patient information and treatment history compared with demographics can assist with this and more quickly resolve questions that arise from decision-making and course of treatment planned. Technologies can reduce healthcare costs and increase the overall quality of patient care by providing access to current, comprehensive healthcare information for both patients and healthcare provides across public and private healthcare settings. While there are potential pitfalls with any new technology and disease management strategy, there is a growing body