Health Information Exchange

Expert Reactions: Rita Torkzadeh, Senior Consultant
The introduction of federal-level incentives for Health IT adoption alongside new quality-driven financial models are spurring significant activity among providers and within the health industry in the United States to achieve ARRA HITECH Act’s Meaningful Use criteria.  Health reform objectives related to accountability and patient-centered care coordination depend on advancing health information exchange and cooperation among all healthcare stakeholders who provide, receive, and pay for care. This also shapes how vendors develop their products where interoperable capabilities are being prioritized to meet newly created and evolving federal certification and information exchange requirements. Healthcare market dynamics, particularly with Health IT vendors, are changing to expand information exchange capabilities beyond the vendors’ own products or population the healthcare entity serves. This has not been as much of an issue in countries that have different healthcare systems, and where the numbers of Health IT vendors are small and well-articulated. In the United States, consumer engagement, demand, and market forces, guided by this administration’s national health IT agenda , will help advance adoption and technology’s value as health IT becomes more pervasive in physicians’ practices in the United States.