Mass Health Policy Forum - By Mass Health Data Consortium

I recently attended a Mass Health Data Consortium Health Policy Forum discussing the adoption of EHR and Health Information Technology in Massachusetts. It was a good meeting and provided me with insights into what is currently occurring around the state, such as the eHealth Collaborative status and standardization initiative occurring at CareGroup Healthcare.
Below is a list of the speakers at the conference:
· John Glaser – VP & CIO, Partners HealthCare System
· Micky Tripathi – CEO, Mass eHealth Collaborative
· John Halamka – CIO, CareGroup Healthcare & Harvard Med School; CEO,
MA-Share
· Janet Marchibroda – CEO, eHealth Initiative & Foundation
· Senator R. Moore – Senate Chair Joint Committee on Health Care Financing
· Judy Ann Bigby – Secretary, Mass Exec Office of Health & Human
Services
· James Roosevelt, Jr – President & CEO, Tufts Health Plan
· John McDonough – Exec Director, Health Care for All
· David Blumenthal – Director, Institute for Health Policy, Mass General
Hospital

The key points I got from the discussion centered on:
· The digital divide that is occurring between the mid to large
practices/tertiary hospitals vs. the small practices/community hospitals.
· PHR (patient health record)
· Population based medicine
· Aligning financial incentives
· Managing privacy, security & confidential principles
· Governmental involvement through
a. Data standardization
b. Addressing why many EHR implementations fail on the small practice
level
c. Possibility of providing low interest or 0% loans to push out EMRs to
small practices
· Will Massachusetts as a state be in leading this as a statewide initiative of following the pack?

The issue concerning the digital divide was brought up by more than one speaker. To put it is simply the small practices/community hospitals often lack the resources (money) to be able to implement a lot of this new technology. However, most of our patient health care is centered on these very institutions. So we’re in a chicken versus egg situation of which should come first.

This argument alone is a reason for greater state involvement at different levels. I’m not saying that the state/federal government should be the 800lb gorilla, but should act in greater partnership with the private sector to nudge along a greater adoption of EHR. The bottom line is that we all agree in concept, this is good for delivering better health care to our patients, the hard part is figuring out a way to do this that is financially feasible for all the health care institutions.