National Heal IT Week: One Voice - One Vision by Nancy Twombly

Health IT has come a long way since the first National Health IT week nine years ago. In 2006, the iPhone and iPad had yet to be announced to the public, and the concept of mobile health was in its early days. While the Electronic Health Record had already been around for quite some time, HITECH hadn't been enacted, and the incentives were not yet in place for widespread EHR adoption.

Over the span of the last decade, there has been significant progress on the Health IT front. As electronic health information becomes more pervasive, the promise of one voice - one vision is becoming a reality. The shift from a culture of pay-for-performance to accountable care is furthering this goal by enabling groups of doctors, hospitals, and other health care providers to come together to give a common vision and coordinated care to the patients they serve - helping to transform healthcare delivery.

And it's not just patients that can benefit from the transformation in Health IT. The ability to leverage the broadest possible set of information assets spanning from tried-and-true sources like paper-based patient records - to genomics and biometric data - helps providers to improve outcomes and support transformative initiatives like population health.

As National HealthIT week 2014 kicks off, I'm looking forward to hearing the voice of real-world practitioners as they share best practice ideas that further the health IT agenda within their health systems. As the healthcare industry rapidly transforms to become more connected, interoperable, and patient-centered, the forward progress of healthcare information technology will continue to advance at an amazing pace.

Today's innovations will become mainstream in the future healthcare landscape - and help to realize the vision of increased patient safety, decreased medical errors, and enhanced interaction between patients and providers.

Tell us how Health IT is transforming your healthcare organization; tweet @IronMtnHealth and join the conversation at #NHITweek.

LINK:	http://blogs.ironmountain.com/2014/industry/healthcare-information-man...
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