Five Provocative Points about Bringing the Benefits of Information Technology to Health Care

Publication Date: November 2005

Publisher: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

Author(s): G.T. Moore

Research Area: Health

Type: White Paper

Abstract:

Many leaders are calling for the widespread adoption of electronic medical records (EMR) in America. Opinions vary, however, about whether the EMR as commercially available can deliver sufficient benefits to practicing doctors to induce them to purchase and use it. In this paper, Moore critiques the current product design of EMRs and offers suggestions for how information technology could improve the design of such efforts.

The design weakness Moore presents is the required recording of doctors' medical notes. He argues that this information—detailed history and progress notes—is difficult to standardize and thus entering it into a rigid format requires considerable training and effort.

Moore outlines four areas in which information technology could offer benefits to doctors and patients at lower cost and effort to more quickly deliver an improved health care system.

Delivering universal interconnectability on an electronic backbone.
Replacing archival record functions with physician order-entry as the foundation of the information technology system.
Creating a logic architecture that can integrate, track and pace the hundreds of transactions that constitute the process of care for an individual patient.
Constructing performance-based clinical database that can serve to inform research efforts and performance improvements.