The new National Coordinator Don Rucker, MD discussed his experiences and offered the healthcare professionals with insight into the healthcare and informatics.
ONC Blog Post By Don Rucker: Here Is An Overview
Don Rucker in an article on ONC, heading Coming to ONC – One Informaticist’s Journey discusses the changes in the software health IT industry and digs a bit into his background as an informaticist.
Rucker said
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“As a medical student at the University of Pennsylvania, I was surprised by how inefficient healthcare seemed to be”
Data Was Holding Healthcare Back In Efficiency
According to Rucker, data is what is actually missing to make healthcare more efficient, he added that personal computers were becoming more commonplace, it is then when he started thinking about building a software to capture data to improve healthcare.
What Rucker Did To Extend His Knowledge On Clinical Efficiency
To extend his knowledge on clinical efficiency, Rucker pursued an MBA at Stanford University and joined Ted Shortliffe’s medical computer science and artificial intelligence program. Once he graduated, he gained immediate first-hand knowledge with EHRs before the technology was even a blip on the radar of most health professionals or health IT experts.
Rucker Joined A Five-Person Startup
In the blog post, Rucker said, unlike his classmates who went on to investment banking and consulting firms, he joined a five-person startup founded by Paul Gertman. This firm was building the first Windows-based electronic medical record in the world. throughout the 1990s, Rucker was involved with this business, Datamedic, in various capacities. He also became the first full-time emergency room attending physician at Beth Israel in Boston.
The Computerized Provider Order Entry (CPOE) Systems
Subsequently, Rucker joined Shared Medical Systems which was later acquired by Siemens. Their he gained experience as a CIO. During his tenure with Shared Medical Systems, he designed and deployed Computerized Provider Order Entry (CPOE) systems at US hospitals. Currently, these systems are a staple at hospitals and healthcare organizations.
Rucker said,
“One can argue that CPOE was the broadly based clinical software to make hospitals more efficient.”
Rucker Vision For Healthcare Delivery Powered By Multiple Data Sources
Rucker says,
“Ultimately, I envision care that is driven by multiple electronic data streams – not just one’s own personal medical history, but also insights from population and public health efforts,” he added “That’s not yet a reality, but it is within reach.”
Rucker’s emphasis before multiple electronic data streams starts informing all clinical care decisions would be on improving interoperability industry-wide. According to him, the prime focus would be to improve EHR technologies and reduce documentation burden, time inefficiencies, and hassle for clinicians. This would allow the clinicians to focus on their patients rather than their computers. Rucker said,
“We need to ensure that our policies reflect the goals of economic transparency and operational efficiency to lower both the cost of care and administrative costs.”
Rucker stated,
“We’ll also be working closely with our colleagues at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services on the implementation of the Quality Payment Program established by provisions of the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 to ensure that we aren’t burdening clinicians with more work that takes them away from patient care.”
Roadmap For Improving Provider Data Accuracy
ONC and CMS would collaborate as part of a multi-stakeholder alliance convened by CAQH to develop a roadmap for improving provider data accuracy. Representatives from both the federal organizations would address the challenges and devise strategies to acquire accurate, timely provider data.
According to Rucker, the team at ONC is great. He said he was surprised to see the passion and commitment they have to support the health of the nation’s citizens. Rucker said,
“I’m looking forward to digging into this work with them, and engaging with the health IT community to achieve a more transparent and efficient healthcare marketplace.”
Date: June 20, 2017