Dr. Karen DeSalvo is the fifth person to serve as National Coordinator for Health Information Technology at the Health and Human Services Department, but perhaps more than any of her predecessors, she is truly in the thick of the struggle to bring doctors, medical practices, and hospitals into the digital age.
Physicians face a major deadline this year: It’s the last year to sign up for the meaningful use incentive payment program created by the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH). If they don’t participate, they lose out on the potential to recoup from the federal government at least a small portion of the money they’ve spent on electronic health record systems. And it’s becoming inevitable that not participating could mean being left behind by insurers, hospitals, and patients.
That’s causing a lot of anxiety. Dr. DeSalvo – a practicing internist – says that she feels doctors’ pain. She recently completed a national listening tour and says that what she learned from those sessions will help inform how the Office of the National Coordinator moves forward.