The nation's federal healthcare IT czar, Robert Kolodner, MD, said today that the government's entire focus for healthcare IT advancement is to improve care.
Kolodner, promoted just two weeks ago from interim to permanent national coordinator of health information technology, said the United States faces a number of drivers for healthcare IT advancement, including runaway costs that threaten to topple the economy and an aging population that will only increase healthcare demands.
"Remember, this isn't about technology, it's about transforming the health of the nation," Kolodner told attendees of the 16th Annual Partnering for Electronic Delivery of Information in Healthcare (WEDI) conference in Baltimore.
"I want you all to take off your professional hats and wear your consumer hats," Kolodner said. "Now ask yourself what is the quality of healthcare you deserve. Then ask how we can together - wearing all of our various hats - succeed in moving forward."
Kolodner said that his key role as a leader is to be just what his title claims, a coordinator. "My role is not to [just] get IT out there. My role is to get IT in order to improve the quality and efficiency of healthcare and the ability of consumers to manage their own health."
Kolodner, who formerly led the development of the Veteran's Administration's health record system said he learned there that merely "dropping in the technology" is not enough. "You have to have drivers and incentives for people to use it."
"When you think about it, it's ironic with as much as we spend on healthcare, you as a consumer do not have the best information available to choose your care," Kolodner said.
According to Kolodner, there have been many instances in the past where the federal government has tried to launch a 10-year healthcare agenda. This time is different, he said. "It looks like we have traction this time."
Kolodner polled the audience of healthcare technology experts as to whether they feel the president's goal of electronic health records is possible by 2014 and only a few of the hundreds in attendance raised their hands.
To this, Kolodner was undaunted. Healthcare IT adoption will reach a tipping point and progress forward at a rapid rate, he said. It will be similar to how the World Wide Web was once only known to "techies" and is now part of almost every American's daily life, Kolodner said.