Halamka's HIT predictions too optimistic?

[rninformatics, DNP, RN]

John Halamka, CIO of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and one of the most respected leaders in health IT predicts where Health IT will take us in a recent MIT Technology Review article.

Do you think his predictions are too optimistic?? Please read and share your comments here on this Forum as we can all learn from each other.

http://www.technologyreview.com/business/38473/page1/

[jjjoy, LPN]

Seems a rather optimistic view to me. There are still so many hurdles to systems talking to each other much less getting accurate data into the system to begin with... then there's the problem of so much data available that one may waste time sorting through it all... finally add in information security concerns...

Barring significant social/environmental obstacles, I imagine eventually our individual health data/history *will* much more accessible... but it may be a VERY bumpy road.

I'm imaging the beginnings of the motor car and roads growing from dirt lanes to interstate highways, from harnessing electricity to the implementation of large power grids, from a few novel transatlantic flights to 24/7 airline hubs dotting the globe... I just don't yet see a standardized infrastructure needed to realize the author's vision of readily available and transferrable med recs in the US.

[rninformatics, DNP, RN]

Good points jjjoy. Perhaps Halamka is thinking of all the efforts currently underway to create robust health information exchange (HIE) via national efforts to develop the Nationwide Health Information Network (NwHIN) as well as local and regional efforts to create health information exchange organizations (HIOs)????

http://www.ihealthbeat.org/perspectives/2011/state-federal-health-data-exchange-efforts-heat-up.aspx

[Mijourney]

As a former trekkie, I feel that Dr. Halamka's emphasis on cloud computing is interesting. I really never grasped that concept until I read the article you posted, Angela. I do see cloud computing as a reality, although as jjjoy indicates, implementation of the strategies that Dr. Halamka points out in the article will be a bumpy road. I'm enthralled by the fact that even now, one's mobile telephone service can be used to cut on and off house lights, start car ignitions, check the living space in real time, and etc. One can be skyped. In the VA system, telehealth is a reality. Even though in some areas timing will be less than warp speed, I'm not all that certain that Dr. Halamka is necessarily overly optimistic with his HIT predictions.

[rninformatics, DNP, RN]

I cant help but agree Mijourney,

I am old enough to remember when technologies such as the microwave, the ultra sound and cell phones where only science fiction!

As a former trekkie, I feel that Dr. Halamka's emphasis on cloud computing is interesting. I really never grasped that concept until I read the article you posted, Angela. I do see cloud computing as a reality, although as jjjoy indicates, implementation of the strategies that Dr. Halamka points out in the article will be a bumpy road. I'm enthralled by the fact that even now, one's mobile telephone service can be used to cut on and off house lights, start car ignitions, check the living space in real time, and etc. One can be skyped. In the VA system, telehealth is a reality. Even though in some areas timing will be less than warp speed, I'm not all that certain that Dr. Halamka is necessarily overly optimistic with his HIT predictions.