Q&A: IT's role in care revolution

Flour, sugar, the last pinch of salt… in crafting the perfect confection, there's often some singular component that holds the rest together, and makes the cake stand up, or the frosting stick. 

[See also: Beacons lead quality 'revolution']

In the realm of public health, IT is proving to be the vital ingredient behind the revolution of patient care. 

At the recent HIMSS 2012 Virtual Conference, leaders from two Beacon communities spoke with Jason Kunzman, project officer for the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology. The session was titled, "Beacon Comunities: Leveraging Health IT to Fuel the Quality Revolution."

Chris Chute, MD, a principal investigator for the Southeastern Minnesota Beacon Community and Lacey Hart, SE MN Beacon's program manager, outlined the CDR and HIE technology that's driving enhancements in their community. Keystone Beacon Community HIE Director Jim Younkin and Doreen Salek, case manager at Geisinger Health System, highlighted the technology behind the central-PA health system. 

To conclude the event, Kunzman asked the officials questions that were posed by the audience. In this Q&A session, the Beacon leaders discussed the future of HIEs, the importance of trust models, data normalization in relationship to CDRs and HIEs, and the measures they've taken to meet security requirements as IT plays an increasingly prominent role in public health. 

[See also: Beacons put community healthcare strategies to the test]

What will it take to make HIEs national? Will we see that in our lifetime?

Kunzman: I will just say that the office of the national coordinator wants to see substantive and robust exchange really take root in 2012 – for those of you that have seen the proposed ruling for Stage 2 meaningful use, I'm sure you've picked up on the fact that we're driving hard towards interoperability and exchange. ONC has sponsored two sort of open-source solutions toward that end, one being the Direct Project, and the other being the Nation-wide Health Information Network.