“The goal of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) health information technology (IT) investments1 is to foster rapid-cycle adoption and meaningful use of health IT to stimulate the economy, improve health, and slow the growth in health care costs for the nation. The near-term strategies for measuring and demonstrating meaningful use must chart a purposeful and compelling path towards this goal.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has a critical opportunity to set clear priorities that will foster the adoption of heath IT to demonstrably improve the quality and cost-effectiveness of care. The process to demonstrate meaningful use can engage patients, build capacity for quality improvement, lower administrative burdens on providers and patients, and, if done strategically and in service of these goals, send a clear market signal that the focus is on using technology to improve care.
Our recommendations for measuring and demonstrating meaningful use address these goals, building from key foundational principles outlined in our prior collective comments2 on meaningful use.
Report
Markle Foundation, 4 December 2009
