DOI: 10.1097/01.COT.0000399413.48873.17

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Issn Print: 0276-2234

Publication Date: 2011/06/10


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Institute of Medicine Report: Digital Technology & Health Care: ‘Poised for Fundamental & Transformative Change’

Peggy Eastman

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Excerpt

WASHINGTON, DC—Like the rest of the world, health care is going digital – from computerized medical records to online communication between patients and health care providers to remote-site diagnosis and treatment. Now a new report from the Institute of Medicine sets forth a vision for a paperless US digital health care infrastructure based on information technology. The new summary report was released at a briefing here.
The report, Digital Infrastructure for the Learning Health System: The Foundation for Continuous Improvement in Health and Health Care, is a summary document based on a series of workshops convened by the IOM's Roundtable on Value & Science-Driven Health Care with support from the federal Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC).
The report envisions the emergence of a health delivery system focused on continuous learning made possible by progress in computational science, information technology and biomedical and health research methods. The Obama administration actively supports the growth of health information technology.
“This report does not present formal recommendations; it illustrates how we're poised for fundamental and transformative change,” said J. Michael McGinnis, MD, MPP, Senior Scholar at the IOM and Executive Director of the Roundtable on Value & Science-Driven Health Care.
He called the digital platform “completely central” to the new health care system envisioned in the report and the “engine that drives the progress that we anticipate.”
He emphasized that the report goes far beyond adoption of the electronic health record (EHR), although that is one piece of the vision (see box).
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