Speakers at Boston Conference Highlight Health IT Opportunities

On Thursday, National Coordinator for Health IT David Blumenthal discussed national progress on health IT adoption during a speech at a conference hosted by the Massachusetts Health Data Consortium, Computerworld reports.

Blumenthal highlighted the grants his office is distributing for health IT education and training at regional extension centers. He said federal investment in health IT training could help create between 45,000 and 50,000 jobs over the next five years.

Blumenthal also discussed how federal officials plan to investigate safety issues associated with electronic health records. He said the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT will prioritize patient safety goals as it works to promote EHR adoption nationwide.

According to Blumenthal, over the next year ONC will focus on:

* Finalizing “meaningful use” regulations for EHRs;
* Helping hospitals and health care providers adopt standards that align with the National Health Information Network; and
* Implementing the “beacon community” grant program to support regional health IT infrastructure and data exchanges (Mearian, Computerworld, 4/30).

Blumenthal said ONC will announce the awards for the beacon community program “very, very soon” (Monegain, Healthcare IT News, 4/30).

Governor Discusses Massachusetts’ Experience

Also during the conference, Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick (D) discussed how health IT initiatives have played out in his state, which requires most residents to obtain a minimum level of health coverage (Computerworld, 4/30).

Patrick said that:

* 45% of Massachusetts physicians have adopted EHRs;
* 50% of state physicians use computerized physician order entry systems; and
* Massachusetts leads the country in electronic prescribing (Healthcare IT News, 4/30).

The governor also said that his state could face challenges in connecting health care providers through health information exchange networks (Computerworld, 4/30).

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