Inside CHIME: CHIME Leaders Showcase Improvements in Care Continuum

Inside CHIME - header

9.29.16 by Leslie Krigstein
VP of Congressional Affairs, CHIME

CHIME board members stormed Capitol Hill during National Health IT Week to showcases advances in health IT and to advocate for data standards, interoperability and more.

Sharing real-world experiences with members of Congress and federal regulators, CHIME board members earlier this week detailed how they are using health IT to extend care beyond the hospital and deep into their communities.

During a CHIME-sponsored luncheon kicking off National Health IT Week – “Connected Care – Leveraging Healthcare Technology to Improve Health at Any Age” – board chair Marc Probst, along with fellow trustees Cara Babachicos and Albert Oriol, detailed how technology is facilitating new avenues and opportunities to connect with patients. The CIOs were joined by Cyndi Cahill, managing partner of Pursuit Healthcare Advisors, who outlined some of the challenges of achieving more widespread adoption of such technologies as telehealth and remote monitoring while healthcare is still largely a fee-for-service model.

The event began with remarks from Vindell Washington, M.D., the nation’s chief health IT official. As the national coordinator for health IT, Washington outlined the progress made to date in digitizing the nation’s healthcare system, as well as outlined directives for the Office of the National Coordinator moving forward to ensure that health IT can be leveraged by clinicians and patients alike to improve healthcare quality and facilitate improved outcomes.

CHIME President & CEO, Russell Branzell moderated a question and answer session.

The CIOs outlined how telemedicine and mhealth are being used to improve access and outcomes for a variety of patient populations. Other discussions centered how precision medicine and genomics can speed clinical decision making and avoid unnecessary treatments. They also explored how to expand access to new and innovative technologies by ensuring that foundational elements like data standards and patient identification are in place.

CHIME representatives also used National Health IT Week to meet with influential policymakers to discuss issues ranging from patient identification and data standards to cybersecurity and telehealth. While National Health IT Week presents an opportunity to shine the public policy light on core CHIME issues, our advocacy efforts are on-going and benefit from CHIME member involvement all year.  We encourage you to consider weighing-in on a particular piece of legislation or to share your stories about how your organizations have leveraged health information technology to improve healthcare, detail your experience with Meaningful Use or quality measurement. Policymakers want to hear from you and they value your experience.

More Inside CHIME Volume 1, No. 27: