By Rep. Bart Gordon (D-TN)
When a staff member of the House Science and Technology Committee suffered a stroke in August, his doctors were able to determine exactly what medications and treatments he had been receiving since having open-heart surgery last year. Why? Because he painstakingly recorded that information on a card he kept in his wallet. That card was the only comprehensive record of his health care.
With the technology available today, there has to be a better way to keep health-care records. Widespread use of electronic health-care records would save patients and providers tens of billions of dollars and reduce errors by giving providers access to up-to-date patient records. Instead, most patients find themselves constantly filling out forms, repeating medical histories and reciting lists of medications. The repetition wastes time and effort, and is risky because patients often do not or cannot keep accurate records, especially in emergencies.
The lack of an integrated system of health information technology, or IT, is costing us billions of dollars, countless hours in lost time, and — most tragically — patients' lives. According to the Institute of Medicine, as many as 98,000 people die in hospitals each year from incorrect medications and improper diagnoses.
Privacy must be ensured
Despite the benefits, the use of IT in the health-care industry lags behind other sectors such as financial, manufacturing and retail. Only 12 percent of medical practices with five or fewer physicians use electronic health-care records, but the majority of Americans receive their primary care from these smaller practices.
One reason for the delay in bringing IT to the health-care industry has been the lack of interoperable record systems that also ensure privacy and data security. Doctors and hospitals are reluctant to invest in systems that are not interoperable with systems owned by other health-care providers.
Unless technical standards are developed to ensure interoperability, privacy, and security of electronic health care records, little will happen to move us past handwritten cards in our wallets.
As chairman of the Science and Technology Committee, I have introduced legislation to promote the integration of U.S. health information systems. This bill would strengthen and reinforce ongoing technical standards work for electronic records and ensure federal agencies set a gold standard in their adoption, deployment and use. The bill also would establish a research program for the next generation of information technologies.
The legislation would provide a greater role for the National Institute of Standards and Technology to work to develop standards and guidelines for electronic health-care records. In the IT field, NIST already has worked cooperatively with the financial, e-business and manufacturing sectors to ensure interoperability, security and integrity of their IT systems. NIST can do the same for health care.
The technology exists for a workable electronic health-care record system. Every month and year that goes by without it needlessly compromises patient care and increases our health-care costs.
