“Public health officials and organizations pivoted quickly to address the COVID-19 pandemic when it first began in March 2020, and health IT kept pace to support their efforts. But health IT still has a long way to go to sufficiently support public health, according to panelists at GovernmentCIO Media & Research’s health IT event last week.”
“’Health care is frequently called a system that doesn’t move fast, doesn’t change easily, is sort of dug-in. In fact, telehealth, telecare, transitioned almost overnight,’ said Dr. Andrew Gettinger, chief clinical officer at the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology.”
“Jonathan Weiner, founding director for the Center for Population Health Information Technology at Johns Hopkins University, offered hard numbers: ‘We’ve gone from less than 1% [of telehealth services] to about 25 to 30% nationally overnight, and we’re not going back.'”
“Gettinger said the reason behind the quick transition was fast-moving federal agencies ‘making it possible.'”
“But in order to move forward, public health organizations need better access to public health data.”
“’If we’re going to learn anything about COVID or new problems, we’re going to need to be able to record it and then track what happens with patients,’ Gettinger said. ‘We’re looking forward to seeing documentation of the vaccines and how long they’re effective and what their complications are. Implementation of systems across the country, both within and outside the government, went from a complicated hands-on affair to being able to be implemented remotely.'”
“Gettinger hopes lawmakers will address information-sharing between public and private health organizations in order to accelerate the flow of information so they can keep abreast of public health crises.”
“In Weiner’s view, the COVID-19 pandemic showed the opportunities health IT has in order to improve public health in meaningful ways…” Read the full article here.
Source: Data Access is Key to Addressing Future Health Crises – By Kate Macri, February 1, 2021. GovernmentCIO.
