Conferences, annual meetings, conventions and scientific assemblies abound this time of year.

Everywhere we went – the American Health Information Management Association convention in Dallas, the Medical Group Management Association confer- ence in Denver, the American Academy of Family Physicians Scientific Assembly and the connected Health Symposium, both in Boston – the excitement over the promise of healthcare information technology was palpable.

“For me it’s been like drinking from a fire hose,” Joseph Kvedar, MD, told an audience at the connected Health Symposium. Kvedar is president and ceO of connected for Health, part of Partners Healthcare in Boston.
He especially believes in the kind of tech- nology that engages patients.

“Active patients do much better,” he said.

At the AHIMA convention, Mark Leavitt, MD, who chairs the certification commission for Health Information Technology, told the audience the commission would offer a modular certification of eHRs for 2011 to ensure no qualified hospital or doctor’s office would miss out on $34 billion in federal incentives.

Leavitt called the government initiatives under way on the healthcare IT front “our moon shot,” and noted that it cost about $34 billion for the first moon landing in 1969.

At the MGMA meeting, William F. Jessee, MD, president and CEO of the organiza- tion, said he was “fired up and ready to go,” on healthcare reform and healthcare IT.

The AAFP assembly focused on IT more than ever. After all, IT underpins the model of a patient-centered medical home touted by the group.

So, there was plenty of excitement all around about the promise of IT.

Anxiety, too, was in the air. Is the transformation happening too fast? Will small community hospitals and solo physician practices be left behind? What is the meaning of “meaningful use”? Will I qualify for federal funds by 2011? How will I know the elec- tronic medical record technology I select is the right one?

John Glaser, CIO of Partners Healthcare in Boston and an adviser to the Office of the national coordinator for Health IT, reminded his Boston-based audience at the connected Health Symposium that they might have a skewed notion of healthcare just by virtue of being in Boston, where the hospitals and medical groups are large and typically ahead of the IT curve.

“There are hundreds of thousands of very small players,” he said. “it’s different in certain markets.”

At a hearing of the Health IT Policy Committee on Oct. 27-28, doctors testified that “meaningful use” may be a good idea in theory, but time and money might pose a problem. These are valid concerns. but transformation is not going too fast – even if it may seem like breakneck speed to some. A change in the way healthcare is delivered and the way healthcare business is conducted is long overdue.

For some healthcare IT leaders, it’s been as long as the last moon shot.

For years, they’ve been asking for govern- ment support to help with the push toward digital transformation in healthcare.
The government has coughed up the money – billions of dollars – and it is accom- panied by support such as regional extension centers to help physicians make the switch.

The transition is not likely to be perfect – or even smooth – but now is the right time to take the leap.