Using Health Information Technology to Benefit Healthcare Consumers and the Healthcare System

By Julie Hook, JSI consultant

The use of information technology (IT) has transformed the way information is collected, managed, and transmitted in nearly every way. The use of IT in the healthcare sector in the United States has lagged behind, however, due to multiple and significant barriers including high costs, lack of standards, and concerns about privacy and security.

Momentum is building for the use of health information technology (HIT) as more and more research demonstrates that its use has the potential to improve the quality, safety, and efficiency of healthcare as well as to reduce costs. Technologies such as interoperable electronic medical records that enable health information exchange with other organizations and bring relevant patient information to the clinician at the point of care benefit patients and the healthcare system as a whole in multiple ways.

These patient benefits include: higher quality of care, reduction in medical errors, fewer duplicate treatments and tests, decrease in paperwork, lower healthcare costs, constant access to health information and more access to affordable care. Using health information technology, the healthcare system would also gain in early detection of infectious disease outbreaks, improving tracking of chronic disease management, ability to gather de-identified data for research purposes, and evaluating healthcare based on value, enabled by the collection of price and quality information that can be compared.

JSI has been involved with several projects with community and public health organizations to improve the quality and efficiency of services provided to underserved, uninsured, and at-risk communities by leveraging HIT tools.

Currently, JSI is working with the California HealthCare Foundation to evaluate three telehealth demonstration projects being implemented at community health centers in California. JSI is evaluating the perceptions of improvements from the patient, provider, and staff perspectives, as well as the impact of telehealth on access to specialty services by low-income and uninsured patients. Ultimately, JSI will produce three case studies that will highlight the challenges to implementation and sustainability, the potential for replication of programs, and key factors for success of these models. [Read more]

In early 2008, JSI worked with a network of health care providers in Northwest Colorado to develop strategies for improving the quality of care to the underserved and uninsured across four rural counties by leveraging health information technology. [Read more]

JSI is also currently working with Connecticut Department of Public Health to develop a statewide strategic plan for implementing HIT and an electronic health information exchange (HIE). The ultimate goal of the HIE plan will be to facilitate the availability of personal health information at any point of care across the healthcare system. [Read more]

Internationally, JSI has been involved in various initiatives to use information technology in strengthening country health information systems (HIS). JSI staff have designed "Decision Support Systems" (DSS) in collaboration with the Ministries of Health of Eritrea, Ethiopia, Ivory Coast, Morocco, Niger, and Pakistan. DSS are computerized applications to assist health services managers in using information from routine health information systems for decision making at all levels of the health system.

In South Africa, JSI helped to develop a national data warehouse to ensure harmonization of various data sets produced by PEPFAR-funded partners with the objective of better monitoring and evaluate management of the HIV epidemic in South Africa. This work continues via the recently awarded Enhancing Strategic Information (ESI) Project which calls for strengthening HIS in South Africa, Lesotho, and Swaziland. [Read more]

JSI is also currently developing the National Health Information System data warehouses under the recently awarded Technical Support Partnership (TSP). This project is funded by the BMG Foundation under the Health Metrics Network (HMN). The goal of HMN/TSP is to standardize, strengthen, and harmonize National HIS worldwide. [Read more]

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