Last night Barack Obama made history, elected as the 44th U.S. president and the first African American to hold the office, he declared "change has come."
In a text message sent last night to the phones of millions of his supporters, Obama said, "all of this happened because of you."
Healthcare leaders expressed optimism at the Obama victory and are encouraged by the Obama platform that promises $10 billion a year over the next five years to advance healthcare IT adoption to reduce healthcare costs and improve quality of care.
David Brailer, former federal healthcare IT czar, said he has offered to advise the next president. In a Nov. 4 email, Brailer said no matter who wins, “digital medicine – electronic records, plug-and-play connectivity, telemedicine and new portability and privacy rules – will continue to see progress in the United States. These innovations will make reform of the health care finance and organization easier, cheaper and more effective.”
Glen Tullman, CEO of Allscripts, was pleased with the Obama win, and not just because of the promise of healthcare reform. "This is truly a historic moment for our country, and for the world as well," Tullman said.
Tullman, who served on Obama's campaign healthcare advisory panel, said "Obama is good for America and good for healthcare." Tullman anticipates Obama will emphasize the use of electronic tools to improve quality and reduce costs in healthcare. In the current economy, the industry will likely go after electronic health records and e-prescribing as the least expensive way to make these changes initially, Tullman said.
Tullman, who said he spent time together with Obama, said the president-elect has a good understanding of healthcare IT. "This is a very exciting time for healthcare, to have a visionary president who understands the promise and power of healthcare IT--and he does," Tullman said.
Some stakeholders have expressed concern that an Obama win could endanger work already accomplished by federal standards committees and certification organizations, but Tullman said he is not concerned that Obama will scratch work already done.
John Halamka, chair of Healthcare Information Technology Standards Panel (HITSP) said both candidates have made supportive statements about healthcare IT in the debates. To his knowledge, neither candidate has specifically mentioned certain federal efforts already underway. "My HITSP role will continue through the change in administration until October 1, 2009," Halamka said.
Andrew Ury, M.D., chief medical officer of McKesson Provider Technologies and vice-chair of the Electronic Health Records Association said last night before the election outcome, "both campaigns included encouraging healthcare IT and EHR adoption in their healthcare proposals."
"No matter who wins, I believe that there will be a continued emphasis on encouraging EHR adoption. Because of the ability of EHR technology to help control healthcare costs and increase the quality of care, I hope that the federal investment in EHR adoption incentives will be increased," Ury said.
Ury cautioned against the new administration "starting over" on developing healthcare IT standards.
"Within HITSP, we've spent a great deal of time, forming, storming and norming, and have produced very promising work which is now being taken up by implementors," said Keith Boone, an interoperability architect at GE Healthcare. "The one piece of advice I'd give the next administration would be to have care with what they change. HITSP is working well, and I'd regret seeing the work of that organization impacted by a large upheaval."
Martin Jensen, a healthcare consultant with Healthcare IT Transition Group said, "I was pleased to see that healthcare IT actually made the cut when Sen. Obama was selecting topics for his 30-minute Obamamercial. There seems to be a strong bipartisan consensus that healthcare IT can save money and improve quality, and I think we can expect HIT to be a big part of Obama's healthcare reform package."
"But those of us within the industry need to acknowledge that there are a lot more ways to do it wrong than do it right," Jensen said. "The most important thing is to look where the incentives need to be to pull us in the direction of interoperability and exchange."
"The first interface we need to build is trust. Data won't move without it," Jensen said.