Thoughts on the future of US health IT under the Obama administration

In December, Bruce Fried wrote in an iHealthBeat article:

“By any measure, the Obama campaign and the presidential transition team understand and have made brilliant use of technology to communicate President-elect Barack Obama’s ideas and network his supporters. The president-elect has announced that, for the first time, there will be a Chief Technology Officer for the United States. Indeed, the transition’s agenda for technology is impressive and exciting.”

I too have been in the health IT adoption battle for a couple of decades, and I agree with Bruce Fried that we are about to see a major breakthrough. The past 4 years, we’ve seen a notable uptick in EHR adoption with some leadership from the Federal government and coordinated public/private initiatives, albeit with only modest financial incentives to back them up. Now, we’ll see $5B, $10B, or $25B of new, external capital infused to drive that proposition. We’ll need to work hard to make sure it propels us in the right direction, but I’m placing my bet alongside Bruce’s for some big changes ahead.

For more of Fried’s thoughts, read With a New President and Congress Coming In, What Lies on the Horizon for Health IT Efforts?