Electronic Health Records are not that hard

1. What's the fuss? With all the hoopla about electronic health records and other regional health information networks you'd think that they were hard to do. Well they're not. There are lots of problems in Medicine that are hard but it's hard to get to them when we can't talk to each other. An information network is all about sharing information .

2. Problem solved. Give me a $100 network pc with a single secure password and the right to run a single computer query. Allow me to plug it in on every health system receiving federal funding and patients would have their federated health system.

3. I challenge the experts to refute this. Most however will agree, and that's because we all know that this is not a difficult technical problem. What kind of problem is it? ... ... political of course.

4. There is of course a little more involved. $400 servers running open-source software at fifty or so universities. The open-source software, verified by any security or privacy expert who wanted to check (unlike our voting machines) would handle the user id and basic audit functions required to prevent abuse by hackers, insurers, nosey neighbors, rogue government agencies and other bad apples.

5. What would we get from this personal health information network? Better health? Probably not. Huge cost savings? Not proven. Inner peace? I wouldn’t be the first to make exaggerated claims. What we would get is a first a lot less paper and rework for patient, doctors and a streamlining of the entire process from benefits verification to reimbursement. Second, this basic list of who we saw when and a code approximately why would be a path forward to actual introducing rational processes into the care process.

6. This information is currently scattered in a piecemeal basis on the computer systems of where we’re received care or paid for care. In a health information network access to comprehensive personal health information would be controlled by individuals. That’s really about all it takes to get started. Once up and running more interesting problems could be tackled by making each entry on the list a link to retrieve more detailed information.

7. Nitpickers, or rather realistic engineers, will bring up issues such as access for emergency service situations, elderly and children who can’t use computers. Standard limited agency agreements can be such contingencies.

8. So what is the problem? It is one of national leadership, local vision, greed and fear of change. Given a simple, inexpensive working solution that respects the letter and spirit of HIPAA patient confidentiality regulations and a little legislative push, we’d be in business .

9. With a system costing $00.02 per person per year in infrastructure record holder such has health systems would have incentive to give away the base links to data in order to ‘sell’ the full information reports for $.00.50, garnering a small fee and saving millions in record handling expenses.

11. Phil Barr consults & lectures on health informatics . Products that turn the market on it’s head with compelling features at a fractional cost of ownership. A leader in web-services usability and standards based interfacing since 1990. HCdat.com