We at Healthcare IT News, who depend on words as our life’s work, would never suggest that words don’t matter. We know that the words themselves matter. Sentence structure matters, and cadence matters. Getting it right matters most of all.

With talk about meaningful use swirling all around us, and every organization and every one who is anyone in healthcare offering their take on what meaningful use is or ought to be, it’s been tough to gain perspective – to see the big picture.

Who would want to adopt technology that is not “useful,” not “meaningful?”

Starting next year, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act sets aside $20 billion for direct funding and incentives for providers who implement electronic health records and demonstrate meaningful use of the technology. It’s the meaningful use phrase that has generated a whirlwind of discussion, statements and pronouncements.

There’s more to come.

David Blumenthal, MD, national coordinator for health information technology, told an audience at a recent Brookings Institute event on healthcare IT and healthcare reform that “it’s not going to be a definition “full form from the federal government.”  He also said that what is meaningful use in 2011 is likely to look different in 2015 and 2018, as the bar is raised.

Arriving at a definition is “certainly a non-trivial task,” Blumenthal said.

Yet, some criteria to meaningful use are known – or at least can be guessed.

“It has to be a certified EHR, it has to include e-prescribing, it has to be able to exchange information and it has to be able to report quality data,” said Mark Leavitt, in a recent interview with Healthcare IT News Editorial Director Jack Beaudoin. Leavitt, who heads the Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Tech-nology, understands that the set-in-stone definition is not yet available and that more functionality will be required in the future than in the first few years.

But Leavitt joins other industry in-siders in urging for action now.  There is no need to wait until a definition of meaningful use is in place to begin the due diligence entailed in finding the right electronic medical record. Find it, implement it, and use it. Make it meaningful.

While Blumenthal may be right that developing a government definition for “meaningful use” will not be a “trivial task,” he also explained in the broad sense and in the common sense of the words that meaningful use is derived from attention to patient care – a focus on outcomes rather than process.

So you see, high-tech brings the healthcare system back to fundamentals. It’s never been about the technology. It’s about how the technology can help care providers give better care – and do so efficiently and effectively, That will help cut spending, too – something that would do a $2.5 trillion-per-year system good. Now, that would be meaningful.

Also meaningful is that Blumenthal is linking healthcare IT to healthcare reform.  When asked at the Brookings Institute, “What would be most helpful for getting your job done?” Blumenthal said healthcare information technology by itself would not be enough. He suggested working with the lawmakers who are trying to revamp the system.

“We will not succeed in our agenda unless healthcare reform succeeds,” he said.

There you have it – in a word or two.