A Robust Health Data Infrastructure
February 17, 2022
The promise of improving health care through the ready access and integration of health data has drawn significant national attention and federal investment. David Blumenthal (former National Coordinator for Health Information Technology) and Marilyn Tavenner (current Administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, CMS) have characterized the situation well: “The widespread use of electronic health records in the United States is inevitable. EHRs will improve caregivers’ decisions and patients’ outcomes. Once patients experience the benefits of this technology, they will demand nothing less from their providers. Hundreds of thousands of physicians have already seen these benefits in their clinical practice. But inevitability does not mean easy transition. We have years of professional agreement and bipartisan consensus regarding the potential value of EHRs. Yet we have not moved significantly to extend the availability of EHRs from a few large institutions to the smaller clinics and practices where most Americans receive their health care.”
