Slide Presentation of the 2007 Annual Meeting of AHRQ

...And the Closer You Get....The Murkier It Gets

• The economists are right—public goods problems are real
  • Physicians aren't clambering for this
  • They want some business functions—like document transfer and lab results—but not pounding the table for shared patient information
• Inter-operability isn't as hard as people say it is.......it's much worse
  • Highly variable degree of sophistication among even the best vendors
  • Just because they told the CCHIT they can do something doesn't mean that they've done it before, or that it won't require a large amount of $$$ development, or that they're willing to do it
  • No one has really done this before, regardless of what they or their references told you
• Capacity constraints of health care organizations (both hospitals and physician offices) and vendors, and coordination requirements among the many players, is an enormous challenge
  • Everyone's not ready when you are.....and vice versa
  • Everyone's not ready to work on the same weekends that you need them to