HHS HIT Website
Written by: John Lynn
Today I came across what someone called a new Health and Human Services (HHS) health information technology (HIT) website. Unfortunately, they didn’t get the same graphic designer and web developer that have been doing such a fine job with the various websites that Obama has been putting up.
I find the first page interesting since it has HHS asserting the following:
Health information technology (Health IT) allows comprehensive management of medical information and its secure exchange between health care consumers and providers. Broad use of health IT will:
- Improve health care quality
- Prevent medical errors
- Reduce health care costs
- Increase administrative efficiencies
- Decrease paperwork
- Expand access to affordable care
Interoperable health IT will improve individual patient care. It will also bring many public health benefits including:
- Early detection of infectious disease outbreaks around the country
- Improved tracking of chronic disease management
- Evaluation of health care based on value enabled by the collection of de-identified price and quality information that can be compared.
I wish that each of these bullet points had links to all of the research that shows these are indeed the outcomes of HIT. This should include the research that argues against HIT being able to solve these problems. That would turn the list into an invaluable resource on the benefits and challenges of HIT.
I’m going to need to take some time to look at the rest of the site. However, the link that said “Standards and Certifications” certainly caught my eye and is guaranteed to be a future blog post.
