Good quality data, well managed, can produce enormous benefits. We need this in healthcare.
In early 2009 I gained a measure of unwitting notoriety when I clicked a button on my hospital’s PHR system to move my personal data into Google Health. A number of things (to put it mildly) did not go well, and what I wrote about it was covered on page 1 of the Boston Globe.
On one hand I was surprised at all the attention it got, because frankly I was new to the world of health IT and didn’t realize I’d written something that would raise eyebrows. On the other hand I was glad it did get the attention, because I work with data in my day job and I know the value of good quality data, well managed – and it was easy to see that this data transfer didn’t fit that standard. I believe we have a long way to go before health IT catches up with the kind of IT best practices found in other industries.
One thing led to another and that spring I was invited to a series of policy meetings in Washington. Candidly it was a thrill to see that my passion for patient engagement meshed well with my professional skills with data and public speaking, such that the message I brought was received warmly.
Here’s an extemporaneous 24 minute talk I gave to a board meeting of the National eHealth Collaborative in June.
The slides are available here on the e-patient blog.
Whenever I’m invited to speak, I work hard to ensure that what I say in the moment is a valuable contribution to that discussion that day. It’s what I’ve done all my life in sales meetings and industry conventions, leading me to be a highly rated speaker who was often invited back. I welcome the chance to apply it to today’s important healthcare work.
I very much hope to continue to participate in the work Washington is now doing to create the regulatory environment that can nourish – and guide – our next generation of systems and workflows.