Still in Utah, still at the Information Therapy conference — A session on how to guide consumers to high quality content, that’s integrated with their care, electronically

Shorter Tom Lee (Calif HC Foundation): Standards for consumer data don’t really exist, but integration of all the technologies providers need without that consumer stuff is a bitch…and anyway the standards are being designed for providers. So this is tough.

Shorter Josh Seidman (Center for Information Therapy): PHRs are disconnected from EHR systems, and give data not information. Integrating a real EMR with a PHR with a content system is even more of a bitch. So getting the right info to the consumer when they need it is difficult.

Shorter Leslie Kelly Hall (St. Alphonsus Regional Medical Center, ID): Can we make looking at our info simpler without going to the level of granularity that providers or plans want? So lets not go to the level of complexity that’s more than we need. But there’s political leadership to do it now, which wasn’t there before.

Tom and Leslie agree with me that we need to change the business models to get there, and by the way CareEncentive may be doing that. (That was an interesting presentation, about how to get docs in Oklahoma to follow guidelines by paying them extra to answer questionnaires, and seeing cost reductions to boot). But Tom thinks that to save the day we need clinician organizations to step up and get the organizational, clincal process transformation done.