Balas Andrew, Al Sanousi Ali
College of Health Sciences, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia 23529, USA.
Stud Health Technol Inform. 2009;150:19-23.
Pressing needs of cost-effectiveness in healthcare and opportunities of emerging electronic health record technologies offer unprecedented chance for progress. Ongoing health care improvement and patient safety initiatives demand new information collection and communication technologies (e.g., Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services, Joint Commission, National Patient Safety Foundation, public health surveillance). Particularly, desire for faster action and cost-effective health care drive unprecedented investments in electronic patient records worldwide. Recognizing these opportunities, many countries and the World Health Organization have launched several major health care improvement initiatives that are driven by new electronic record technologies. In the United States, historic $19 billion investment is provided through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Models of sharing electronic patient data and citizen expectations for personal electronic health records will be reviewed. Regional health information networks and other information sharing initiatives depend on the interoperability of systems. Ultimately, the recent flood of health information standards needs to be balanced with actual interoperability opportunities. It is anticipated that the current policy discussions on the "meaningful use" of electronic health records will have major beneficial technical and also reimbursement implications.
医疗保健领域对成本效益的迫切需求以及新兴电子健康记录技术带来的机遇为进步提供了前所未有的契机。持续推进的医疗保健改善和患者安全举措需要新的信息收集和通信技术（例如，医疗补助与医疗照顾服务中心、联合委员会、国家患者安全基金会、公共卫生监测）。特别是，对更快行动和具有成本效益的医疗保健的渴望推动了全球对电子病历的前所未有的投资。认识到这些机遇，许多国家和世界卫生组织已经发起了多项由新电子记录技术推动的重大医疗保健改善举措。在美国，通过2009年的《美国复苏与再投资法案》提供了190亿美元的历史性投资。将对共享电子患者数据的模式以及公民对个人电子健康记录的期望进行审视。区域健康信息网络和其他信息共享举措依赖于系统的互操作性。最终，近期大量涌现的健康信息标准需要与实际的互操作性机遇相平衡。预计当前关于电子健康记录“有意义使用”的政策讨论将产生重大的有益技术影响以及报销方面的影响。
