A Day at the Brookings Institution

Although I usually publish a Cool Technology blog on Fridays, today I'm at a Brookings Institution Conference - Making Enhanced Use of Health Information.

The first panel was a dialog between Mark McClellan (Brookings) and Farzad Mostashari (ONC) with reaction/commentary by Amanda Parsons (New York City Primary Care Information Project) and me. The most important take home point was Farzad's commentary that health IT work be guided by several principles

1. Keep data as close to the source as possible, minimizing the need for complex centralized databases.

2. Minimize burden. Data should be collected through routine delivery of care

3. Collect once, use many

4. Be humble about what government can do

5. Watch out for the little guy

6. Foster innovation

7. Observe and adapt

8. Don’t build cathedrals

9. Don’t rip and replace

10. Standards, shared services, and policies can help

The second panel was a comparative description of models to use health information in novel ways. Speakers included James Walker (Geisinger), Robert Steffel (Heathbridge), David Patterson (South Carolina HIE), John Steiner (Kaiser), and Mike Raymer (Microsoft). My take home from listening to these folks was that each has created a live functional health information exchange, coordinating care and supporting population health. There was real optimism among the speakers.

The third panel was a discussion of policy implications. Speakers included Andrew McLaughlin (Whitehouse Office of Science and Technology), Carol Diamond (Markle) Landen Bain (CDISC), and Andrew Webber (National Business Coalition on Health). It's clear that there are accelerators that can support data exchanges. Andrew McLaughlin highlighted mechanisms to authenticate providers and patients, Carol highlighted mechanisms for measuring quality, Landen Bain highlighted guidance from the FDA and Andrew Weber highlighted the need for healthcare reform to align incentives.

A very worthwhile morning!