So following in the footsteps of like-minded Lenninists Stalin and Mao, HHS secretary Tommy Thompson announced a 10 year plan for health technology on Wednesday. Speaking as a Lenninist (or at least someone who agrees that it’s usually better fewer but better) I can now say that I approve of something the Adminstration has done. For the guts of David Brailer’s (the new Health IT Czar–not such a Lenninist title I guess!) speech come several new initiatives–detailed in this article. The associated report has serveral overall reccomendations:

The report identifies four major collaborative goals. With these goals are 12 strategies for advancing and focusing future efforts:

Goal 1: Inform Clinical Practice. This goal centers largely around efforts to bring EHRs directly into clinical practice. Three strategies for realizing this goal are: Strategy 1. Provide incentives for EHR adoption. The transition to safe, more consumer-friendly and regionally integrated care delivery will require shared investments in information tools and changes to current clinical practice. Strategy 2. Reduce risk of EHR investment. Clinicians who purchase EHRs and who attempt to change their clinical practices and office operations face a variety of risks that make this decision unduly challenging. Low-cost support systems that reduce risk, failure, and partial use of EHRs are needed. Strategy 3. Promote EHR diffusion in rural and underserved areas. Practices and hospitals in rural and other underserved areas lag in EHR adoption. Technology transfer and other support efforts are needed to ensure widespread adoption. Strategy 1. Regional collaborations. Local oversight of health information exchange that reflects the needs and goals of a population should be developed. Strategy 2. Develop a national health information network. A set of common intercommunication tools such as mobile authentication, Web services architecture, and security technologies are needed to support data movement that is inexpensive and secure. A national health information network that can provide low-cost and secure data movement is needed, along with a public-private oversight or management function to ensure adherence to public policy objectives. Strategy 3. Coordinate federal health information systems. There is a need for federal health information systems to be interoperable and to exchange data so that federal care delivery, reimbursement, and oversight are more efficient and cost-effective. Federal health information systems will be interoperable and consistent with the national health information network.

Goal 2: Interconnect Clinicians. Interconnecting clinicians will allow information to be portable and to move with consumers from one point of care to another. This will require an interoperable infrastructure to help clinicians get access to critical health care information when their clinical and/or treatment decisions are being made. Three strategies for realizing this goal are:

Goal 3: Personalize Care. Consumer-centric information helps individuals manage their own wellness and assists with their personal health care decisions. Three strategies for realizing this goal are: Strategy 1. Encourage use of Personal Health Records. Consumers are increasingly seeking information about their care as a means of getting better control over their health care experience, and PHRs that provide customized facts and guidance to them are needed. Strategy 2. Enhance informed consumer choice. Consumers should have the ability to select clinicians and institutions based on what they value and the information to guide their choice, including the quality of care providers deliver. Strategy 3. Promote use of telehealth systems. The use of telehealth — remote communication technologies — can provide access to health services for consumers and clinicians in rural and underserved areas.

Goal 4: Improve Population Health. Population health improvement envisions improved capacity for public health monitoring, quality of care measurement and bringing research advances more quickly into medical practice. Three strategies for realizing this goal are: Strategy 1. Unify public health surveillance architectures. An interoperable public health surveillance system is needed that will allow exchange of information, consistent with privacy laws, to better protect against disease. Strategy 2. Streamline quality and health status monitoring. Many different state and local organizations collect subsets of data for specific purposes and use it in different ways. A streamlined quality-monitoring infrastructure that will allow a complete look at quality and other issues in real-time and at the point of care is needed. Strategy 3. Accelerate research and dissemination of evidence. Information tools are needed that can accelerate scientific discoveries and their translation into clinically useful products, applications, and knowledge.

While we can all agree that these are laudable goals, which should have been pushed by the government long ago, the obvious reaction is along the lines of "Show me the money!" In iHealthBeat’s excellent roundup George Isham, chief medical officer for Minnesota-based HealthPartners said the 10-year plan is "awfully ambitious" and will "take a lot of money and a lot of time," but is "needed. I hate to mention it here but the equivalent of what the Brits will spend on their 10 year Health IT plan in US dollars per population is about $100 billion and they are starting from 80% use of ambulatory EMRs by their GPs! And of course if you adjust that spending per capita spending on health care, you’d need to spend more like $250 billion or $25 billion a year. (Brief Editorial: My proposal is that we stop blowing the $25 billion a year we waste on the Drug War and spend it on this instead!)

Now that’s not exactly a fair comparison as American private sector spending on IT is going to be the driving force here, but there is still a need for government funding and pump priming. So what was the atmosphere in DC Wednesday, and are we likely to get that pump priming? For that here’s some comments from the ever wonderful Jane Sarasohn Kahn:

Carolyn Clancy’s (head of AHQR) assertion that, "The framework ROCKS!" was indicative of the level of excitement and passion around Dr. Brailer’s report that, in the words of Secretary Thompson, "launches the decade of health IT."  Dr. Brailer introduced the day by invoking the image of Neil Armstrong walking on the moon (as I was thinking good karma all the while for the other Armstrong of the day, Lance).  The day was full of gravitas lent by Senator Frist and Rep. Nancy Johnson, and Patrick Kennedy had a front-row seat waiting to introduce his legislation for comprehensive electronic health system in ten years’ time.  The morning had the key Federal health care leadership all committing to the plan, from the VA and DoD (both far ahead of the private sector, which you can do with scale and one large purchaser) to AHRQ, the FDA, and the eloquent Elias Zerhouni of NIH.    The afternoon was quite interesting: on the private sector vendor panel, Neal Patterson (Cerner) spoke about railroads and the Federal input on "gauge."  But it was Dan Garrett of CSC who made Mr. Patterson’s blood pressure boil as Garrett waxed lyrically about open standards, with our old friend Neil deCrescenzo of IBM echoing the same.  In fact, open standards are crucial to Dr. Brailer’s vision of interoperability and could be the friction point for moving forward.  But Tommy Thompson wants to take no prisoners in this effort and is very aggressive on the topic of the health IT decade.  Even Mark McClellan of CMS is pushing forward with a Medicare Internet portal in Indiana later this year to roll out nationally after they learn what they need to learn.  And he’s also pushing eRx sooner rather than the MMA mandate suggests.

So keep your eyes on this. After 40 years of activity towards electronic health records the Feds have finally called for the building of a Railroad, and the train may begin to leave the station sooner rather than later….