* Readers weigh in with their views on the healthcare's slow adoption of IT
My recent article offering one potential explanation about why the healthcare industry is slow to adopt the use of e-mail and other communications technology prompted a number of readers to offer their comments – here is what some of the readers said:
* “There is more than lack of competition regarding use of e-mail in the health industry. It must have been back in the late 90s when I asked why they could not simply e-mail me the test results or why I could not e-mail the doctor with any questions I might have after the fact of the visit. Privacy concerns were the reason cited, even back then.”
* “I fully agree with your opinion concerning health insurance[‘s slow] IT acceptance, however I believe this issue is much larger. If people bought their health insurance instead of the government or the workers’ company, it would drive down healthcare costs overall; not just drive IT acceptance.”
* “I personally believe the other key element hindering rapid adoption is the reimbursement system for physicians. There has been, up until now, very little emphasis on ‘pay for performance’. As a practicing MD in Canada, I am fully aware that the main driver of reimbursement is quantity, not quality. Since most MDs are at full utilization, there is no incentive to invest money in technologies that do not increase throughput. If I were to invest monies in these technologies without a reasonable ROI, then I would be clearly behind my colleagues, which I use as a benchmark. This concept of investment and ROI seems obvious in most industries, but somehow seems to be overlooked when it comes to MDs and healthcare.”
* “I blame the technology industry primarily [for the slow pace of adopting communications technology]. No one has a good easy public key encryption system. I look for a ‘solution’ with identification, authentication, authorization, accountability, confidentiality, non-repudiation, continuous protection, and recovery across the problem spaces of users, systems, applications, databases and networks. The technology industry has known the problem space for at least four decades. I remember being lectured about it when personal computers were first put into use! This is all our fault. I could go on for hours. PKI and GSSAPI are/were out there. Encryption engines abound. Yet, I can’t sit down and e-mail, fax, call, or IM my doctor. AND, the doc can’t communicate with me.”
Thank you to everyone who sent me their feedback on the article.
