The human side of healthcare IT: Meaningful Use extends beyond technology

Last week during the CMS and ONC press briefing on meaningful use, we had the privilege to listen to Regina Holliday's courageous and powerful story of losing a loved one while having to deal with a healthcare support system not properly equipped to fully care for patients. Regina told the story of the last days of her late husband who passed away from kidney cancer at the age of 39. She expressed her frustration with several misdiagnoses, the lack of communication between staff and doctors, her inability to access her husband's medical records and overall poor experience with the U.S. medical system.

As professionals in the health IT industry, we sometimes get caught up in the details of the technology and standards. However, listening to Regina share her pain, we couldn't help but put our mission and everyday efforts here at NaviNet into perspective. We work hard every day so people like Regina Holliday don't have to fight to have access to a loved one's medical history or worry about their doctors being up-to-date with their patients' health status. We have the resources, the know-how and the determination to improve the quality of care with technology. No one should have an experience like Regina.

Daniel Lyons, in his Newsweek article "Microsoft's bid to fix medical care", says that "at its core, health care really is an information-management business." Effective information management is at the core of a number of great companies that were built over the last 20 years. Walmart used technology to create a more efficient supply chain, TripAdvisor became synonymous with travel reviews by effectively amalgamating user feedback, and Amazon developed a brand new business model via an innovative online marketplace based on information-sharing. We do almost everything online these days: banking, travel planning, and shopping. But when we visit the doctor, we still do things pretty much the way we did them a half century ago. Why is this?

This is the precise question that millions of Americans are asking, and we in the healthcare technology industry have never been in a better position to address it meaningfully. At NaviNet, we are fully committed to creating the industry's first unified patient information management system with the help of our partners, and health plan and provider customers. Interoperability, standards and free market innovation are going to be the drivers for better care through technology. At NaviNet, we plan on playing a key role as a facilitator in placing critical solutions in the hands of providers.

We trust that the solutions we are collaboratively developing can and will minimize the chance that fatal and painful experiences, such as what Regina Holliday and her husband had to go through, are all left in the past.

To view Holliday's story:

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Regards,
Brad Waugh
President and CEO