Computerworld -
I sense that we are at the start of a new era of entrepreneurial zeal such as the one that transformed Silicon Valley three decades ago. And I believe that one area of the economy that will be transformed by this new wave of innovation will be my field, healthcare.
Today, the U.S. does not have a healthcare system. Instead we have disconnected hospitals, clinics, labs and pharmacies that produce redundant and error-prone care.
Take as an example that point in time when a recovering patient leaves the hospital and goes home for continuing treatment. Many current transition-of-care processes are complex, confusing and cumbersome. My mother recently fractured her hip, and I found myself serving as her healthcare advocate, home care coordinator and general contractor. The market is ripe for products that make care management and coordination easier. And there is reason to be optimistic that the conditions are in place to bring energy and enthusiasm to such healthcare needs.
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Computerworld - I sense that we are at the start of a new era of entrepreneurial zeal such as the one that transformed Silicon Valley three decades ago. And I believe that one area of the economy that will be transformed by this new wave of innovation will be my field, healthcare.
Today, the U.S. does not have a healthcare system. Instead we have disconnected hospitals, clinics, labs and pharmacies that produce redundant and error-prone care.
Take as an example that point in time when a recovering patient leaves the hospital and goes home for continuing treatment. Many current transition-of-care processes are complex, confusing and cumbersome. My mother recently fractured her hip, and I found myself serving as her healthcare advocate, home care coordinator and general contractor. The market is ripe for products that make care management and coordination easier. And there is reason to be optimistic that the conditions are in place to bring energy and enthusiasm to such healthcare needs.
With President Obama re-elected, healthcare reform will be widely implemented, and that means hospitals and clinicians will be paid for wellness, and not just quantity of care. To get there, novel IT solutions will be needed to care for patients in the home and eliminate unnecessary and expensive hospital care.
On another front, the current iteration of the healthcare IT stimulus program, Meaningful Use Stage 2, with its focus on increased interoperability, and future stages, which are likely to include enhancements to patient and family engagement, will accelerate the demand for products that improve care coordination. Federal programs actually encourage the adoption of products from small companies by supporting something called "modular certification." The idea is that clinicians can adopt a combination of certified software, including small modules from emerging companies, to quality for federal stimulus dollars. An approach that fosters adoption of niche software components will make it much easier for young entrepreneurs to make their products part of the physician and hospital software set used for attestation.
It's an exciting time to watch the creativity of the next generation fixing healthcare. I am convinced that this will happen through TechStars, Rock Health, Healthbox and other incubators/accelerators as well as through federally funded "Datapaloozas" and innovation competitions -- the breakthroughs we need in healthcare process improvement will be invented by twentysomething entrepreneurs and not midcareer professionals in established companies.
So immerse yourself in advising and mentoring these people. I will.
John D. Halamka is CIO at CareGroup Healthcare System, CIO and associate dean for educational technology at Harvard Medical School, chairman of the New England Health Electronic Data Interchange Network, chairman of the national Healthcare Information Technology Standards Panel and a practicing emergency physician. You can contact him at jhalamka@caregroup.harvard.edu.
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