My final interview from my trip to Microsoft was with Nate McLemore, who is Director of Business Development for the Health Solutions Group and also involved in Microsoft’s policy & lobbying work. Nate talked about Microsoft’s role in the ongoing deliberations on meaningful use, ARRA and all that.
It would be unfortunate for policymakers to tie meaningful use too tightly to standards. It will delay the deployment of IT and will effectively waste many of the systems and applications in use today. An investment in an information exchange infrastructure that is proven to be effective would be a solid step toward achieving meaningful use.
There are proven examples of how information exchange is working today, some of which are standards-based some of which are not.
Enabling the EHR requires an infrasstructuree that includes an integration engine to enable systems to talk to each other, a patient registry or EMPI to make the proper record linkages across disparate systems and a portal or EMR with the ability to electronically access the information in real time.
Many leading organizations are achieving their interoperability goals with this model. Policymakers would benefit from understanding what is working today so they can apply these successes to ARRA requirements.
Get a tripod!
It doesn’t matter if the camera moves, he is not in a news channel.