A good start to make HIT use meaningful to patients!

By Patricia Flatley Brennan, Director, Project HealthDesign

At the Meaningful Use Workgroup of the Health IT Policy Committee (ONC), a disparate set of voices sang as one choir. It is possible, even necessary, to use HIT innovations to engage, educate, and empower patients and their lay care partners.

Singing from the same page is a necessary starting point, and here are some points of agreement I came away with:

• A person should have full access to their health data regardless of where it is generated.

• Person-generated health data includes both information directed by clinicians and obtained by patients (like daily weights or home blood pressure) as well as person-defined data (like sleep adequacy or the ability to walk to the grocery store).

• Data should be available in machine computable form, not just in human readable form.

Here's where more work needs to be done:

• Should data obtained in the home (e.g. with a home glucometer) or created by the patient (e.g. what I ate for dinner) be noted as such in the electronic record?

• In order of priority, what patient generated data should be included in the electronic health record?


• How can the benefits of meaningful use be extended to provider groups like visiting nurses, community drug treatment facilities, and other “social health” providers whose services may be the key to insuring appropriate use of health services like ERs and hospitals?

We at Project HealthDesign believe that three things are necessary to achieve the benefits intended by the meaningful use incentives:

• Health information technologies and policies that enable information selected and gathered by patients to be integrated into clinical care

• Health information that is accessible to patients in a computable form

• Health information for patients must be actionable

You can read my full testimony here. Audio of the complete hearing as well as links to testimony given by others can be found here under the April 20 meeting date. I commend Chairs Tang and Hripsak, and the workgroup, for bringing the patient into the loop. Meaningful use should result in improved health for all, and it is clear that full engagement of patients is a necessary first step!

Comments

[Sarah Apple]

The Meaningful Use Workgroup is asking for public comment on HHS' Health IT blog. Add your voice at http://bit.ly/aTpg49.

[Vojtech Huser]

At Marshfield Clinic, patient can now get their record on a CD. (after HITECH Feb 2010 deadline).