We are just back from what was apparently a very successful HIMSS09 in Chicago, where everyone was abuzz about the $20 billion plus dollars likely to flow to healthcare IT as a result of the economic stimulus package.

These are heady times for the industry – with the federal government finally putting healthcare IT on the front burner, after years at the back. A new administration with new energy is poised to lead the transformation of the U.S. healthcare system from one that is paper-based to one that is digital. There are complex challenges ahead and yet unanswered questions. But there is also new momentum and new determination.
It’s easy to be full of hope.

David Blumenthal, MD, admired for his policy and healthcare IT acumen, has taken over the helm at the Office of the National Coordinator. And, for the first six months John Glaser, who supported healthcare IT long before it became the hip thing to do, will be advising him on all things HITECH. This pair may be gung-ho when it comes to healthcare IT, but they also advocate a cautious approach.

Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius is in the wings, poised to begin work as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. As Healthcare IT News goes to press, she awaits confirmation by the full Senate. There is a move to derail her nomination over her right-to-choose record on abortion. But, insiders say the votes are in place for confirmation.

Nancy-Ann DeParle, director of the White House Office of Health Reform has linked the healthcare-IT connected Medical Home model advocated by the American Academy of Family Physicians and several other professional groups to healthcare reform.

“We want to move toward things that will bend the (cost) curve to create better incentives for physicians and hospitals to treat patients in a smarter way,” she said during an April 14 press briefing. For example, she said, the administration wants to “incentivize physicians to use electronic medical records in a meaningful way for better treatment, better care, more conveniences and better administration in their offices.”

Paul Tang, MD, and Marc Probst have been tapped to serve on the federal Health Information Technology Policy Committee.

Tang, an internal medicine physician, is vice president and chief medical information officer of the Palo Alto Medical Foundation in California (part of the Sutter health System). Probst is CIO of Intermountain Healthcare in Salt Lake City, which is often held up as a pioneer in the use of healthcare information technology. Probst and Tang represent healthcare providers on the newly named 13-member board.

Peter Orszag, who left his post as director of the Congressional Budget Office to return to the executive branch (he was economic adviser to President Clinton) to run the Office of Management and Budget, is on record as supporting IT as a means of providing greater efficiencies, but also questioning how much money IT alone could save without implementing other changes.

All these leaders arededicated advocates of healthcare IT as a tool for providing better care at less cost. But, there is no starry-eyed enthusiast among them. Each brings a healthy dose of skepticism to the task of retooling - and ample reason for hope.