Engaging Providers and Patients as Consumers in Healthcare Transformation

Today, as part of National Health IT Week, I am representing HIMSS at the launch of a Consumer eHealth Program in Washington, DC, where the federal government and organizations across the healthcare community are joining together to provide resources and education to patients and providers. 

The goal is to empower consumers to access and use their own information to become a partner in their health and healthcare.  HIMSS believes that such a goal requires providers understand the value and benefits of electronic health information, and how providers and patients can use collaboratively use IT.

Therefore, as a cause-based organization, HIMSS pledges to lead the effort to equip clinicians and other front-line personnel with the education, tools and resources needed to make smart decisions on when and how to e-engage consumers to improve the quality, cost-effectiveness, safety and access to healthcare. We want to positively transform healthcare and are committed to equipping providers for e-engagement with consumers.

To make good on our pledge, HIMSS will be utilizing our professional development tools, such as the eLearning Academy, Annual and  Virtual Conferences and social media tools to introduce providers to new and innovative approaches to e-engage patients as consumers of care. 

Throughout National Health IT Week, all of us will have the opportunity to highlight the successes in our journey toward a safer, more cost-effectiveness, and better health system through the best use of interoperable IT.  One of the essential components to achieve such an interoperable system is ensuring widespread patient/consumer involvement with providers to jointly address needs.  Today, we take a critical next step forward with the federal government and the healthcare community announcing the Consumer eHealth Program.    

Providers have begun to reach out to their patients through patient portals, where patients (as involved and interested consumers of care) can schedule appointments and check for lab results.  In some organizations across the United States, patients can send a secure email message to their caregivers. EHRs allow providers to share information with their patients at the point of care, a valuable tool for chronic disease management. 

HIMSS is all about “raising the waters for all.” By engaging the power of our wonderful volunteers, in the past 12 months, we published, and made available for our members, more than 200 pieces on our website.  Right now, through our Personal Health IT Task Force, hardworking volunteers are creating a toolkit to provide a single online source for all the credible and relevant information we can find on personal health IT data exchange.

Are you engaging patients as consumers in their healthcare delivery?  What health IT tools are you utilizing and what best practices can you share to help us reach these critical milestones on the road to consumer engagement? 

We would love to hear from you.  Tell us your stories!